tata, noun

/ˈtaːta/
Forms:
Also tat’, utata.
Origin:
IsiXhosa
Especially among speakers of isiXhosa: ‘father’, ‘daddy’. Cf. baba noun2
a. A respectful form of address to a father, a paternal uncle, or any older man.
1963 Wilson & Mafeje Langa 87A girl will use tata, the equivalent of the more familiar ‘daddy’, rather than ‘father’, and tata is used in the extended sense by both men and women, for father’s brothers and senior men, but not bawo as it was traditionally.
1963 Wilson & Mafeje Langa 88Others use tata, whereas bawo used to be a common form of address to an elderly man.
1976 R.L. Peteni Hill of Fools 18‘You are not telling us the story clearly, Zuziwe,’ interrupted her father. ‘Try to give us a detailed account of the assault.’ ‘Excuse me, tata, my mind is confused.’
1979 F. Dike First S. African 16Hayi tata I’m reading the paper and I clean forgot that mama should have been home long ago.
1987 N. Mathiane in Frontline Apr. 19Winnie halts the noise by calling the old man to order, saying once more in a very soft manner, ‘Tata, you must never call these children a gang’.
1992 J. Myburgh in Weekend Argus 22 Feb. 5They call him ‘Tata’ (Xhosa for father), but when he ‘makes us cross, we call him Comrade President’.
b. A respectful form of reference to a father or an older man; also used before a name, as a title, sometimes in the construction tata-ka-, ‘father of’.
1973 A.C. Jordan in Best of S. Afr. Short Stories (1991) 37No! We can’t do that. Tata will beat us!
1976 R.L. Peteni Hill of Fools 29‘Where’s your father? And where’s Duma?’ ‘We left them at tata Dakada’s home.’
1977 Daily Dispatch 7 Oct. (Indaba) 1Tata (Mr. Motau) stood up and as he got to the steps leading to the inside room a man in camouflage uniform got through the window...‘The men stood there as the dog dragged Tata across the floor.’
1979 D. Smuts (tr. of E. Joubert’s Swerfjare van Poppie Nongena) in Fair Lady 9 May 112All night long they prayed and sang hymns and comforted her for the death of tata-ka-Bonsile.
1980 E. Joubert Long Journey of Poppie Nongena 216My tata let me know that he is waiting for me; he is old now.
1987 M. Mosotho in Tribute Feb.–Mar. 16There was this American senator..who saw utata. He was shocked when he met him and tried to introduce himself only to find that my father knew him.
1990 City Press 11 Mar. 7Mangope..recently referred sarcastically to bo-Tat’uMandela, Tat’uSisulu etc, as ‘Mabinditi’, a derogatory name for old convicts.
‘father’, ‘daddy’.
A respectful form of address to a father, a paternal uncle, or any older man.
A respectful form of reference to a father or an older man; also used before a name, as a title, sometimes in the construction tata-ka-, ‘father of’.
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IsiXhosa
Tassies, nounn.Taung, nounn.
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