tath meaning (archaic): definition, etymology and quotations

tath

noun

Etymology From Middle English tath, from Old Norse tað (“manure”), from Proto-Germanic *tadą (“manure”), from Proto-Indo-European *dāy- (“to divide, split, part, section”). Cognate with Icelandic tað (“manure, dung”), dialectal Swedish tad (“manure, dung”).

Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle Scotland, UK, Archaic, Dialectal, Historical The dung of livestock left on a field to serve as manure or fertiliser.

after the sheep have trod out a great quantity of stones, in feeding off turnips, to have them raked up clean, which I have known some farmers do, nor can the rake be used without taking some of the tathe, or dung, with them .1804, Arthur Young, The Farmer's Calendar:

Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle Scotland, UK, Archaic, Dialectal, Historical A piece of ground dunged by livestock.

Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle Scotland, UK, Archaic, Dialectal, Historical Strong grass growing around the dung of kine.

tath

verb

Etymology From Middle English tathen, from Old Norse teðja (“to manure”), from Proto-Germanic *tadjaną (“to strew, scatter”), from Proto-Indo-European *dāy- (“to divide, split, part, section”). Cognate with Icelandic teðja (“to dung, manure”), Norwegian tedja (“to dung”), German zetten (“to let fall in small pieces, let crumble”).

Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle Scotland, UK, Archaic, Dialectal, Historical To manure (land) by pasturing cattle on it, or causing them to lie upon it.

I would have no more ploughed than has been tathed the preceding year1808, Agricultural Surveys: Inverness: