tatu

tatu (plural tatus)

1. Archaic form of tattoo (“decorative ink design on the skin”).

tatu (third-person singular simple present tatus, present participle tatuing, simple past and past participle tatued)

1. Archaic form of tattoo (“decorative ink design on the skin”).

tatu (plural tatus)

1. Alternative form of tatou (“giant armadillo”).

• “tatu”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• taut, taut-

tatu f (plural tãtãnj, definite articulation tatul)

1. alternative form of tatã

Inherited from Proto-Bantu *-tátʊ̀, from Proto-Atlantic-Congo *-tháthu, from either Proto-Niger-Congo *ta(C) or Proto-Niger-Congo *tat.

-tatu

1. three

From French tatou, from Old Tupi tatu (“armadillo”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɒtu]
• Hyphenation: ta‧tu
• Rhymes: -tu

tatu (plural tatuk)

1. armadillo

tatu

1. romanization of ꦠꦠꦸ

tatu

1. three

From Proto-Bantu *-tátʊ̀.

tatu

1. three

Unknown (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ta.tu/
• Rhymes: -tu
• Hyphenation: ta‧tu

tatu

1. wound

• > Javanese: ꦠꦠꦸ (tatu) (inherited)

Historical spellings
Anchieta (1555)	tatû
Staden (1557)	Dattu
Thevet (1575)	tatou
Marcgrave (1648)	tatu

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *tatu, from Proto-Tupian *jat͡sju. First attested in 1553.

Cognate with Paraguayan Guarani tatu and Sateré-Mawé sahu.

• IPA^(key): /taˈtu/
• Rhymes: -u
• Hyphenation: ta‧tu

tatu (unpossessable)

1. armadillo (any mammal in the order Cingulata)
   • 1557, Hans Staden, chapter XXX, in Warhaftige Hiſtoria [True History], volume 2 (in German), Marburg: Andreas Kolbe, unnumbered page:

     Auch hat es eyn art thierer heyssen Dattu / ist vngeferlich eyner spannen hoch / anderthalber spannen lang / ist gewapnet allenthalben vmb den leib her / nur alleyn am bauch hat es nichts Das wapen ist wie horn / schleusset auff eynander mit gelencken wie harnisch / hat eyn langes spitziges muendlein / eynen langen schwantz / geht gern vmb steyn klippen her / sein speis ist omeysen / hat fett fleysch / hab offt daruon gessen.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • [1560, Joseph of Anchieta, chapter XXVIII, in Epistola quamplurimarum rerum naturalium quae S. Vicentii (nunc S. Pauli) provinciam incolunt sistens descriptionem (in Latin); republished as Diogo de Toledo Lara Ordonhez, editor, Lisboa: Typis Academiae, 1799, page 20:

     ESt et aliud animal satis frequens apud nos (Tatû vocant) in cavernis subterraneis per campos habitans, cauda et capite Lacertis fere simile; durissima concha sagittis impervia, armaturæ equi persimili, totum desuper corpus contectum […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)]

   • [1578, Jean de Léry, chapter X, in Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre du Bresil, autrement dite Amerique [History of a voyage to the land of Brazil, also called America] (in Middle French), La Rochelle: Antoine Chuppin, page 156:

     Quant au Tatou de ceste terre du Bresil, cest Animal (comme les herissons par deça) sans pouuoir courir si vite que plusieurs autres, se traisne ordinairemente par les buissons […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)]

   • [p. 1583, Fernão Cardim, chapter 1, in Do clima e terra do Brasil (in Portuguese); republished in Rodolfo Garcia, editor, Tratados da terra e gente do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro: J. Leite & Cia, 1925, page 40:

     Tatú. — Este animal he do tamanho de hum leitão, de côr como branca, o focinho tem muito comprido, o corpo cheio de humas como laminas com que fica armado, e descem-lhe huns pedaços como têm as Badas. […] Destes ha muitas especies e ha grande abundancia.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)]

   • [1648, Georg Marcgrave, Willem Piso, Historia Naturalis Brasiliae [Brazilian Natural History], Rerum Naturalium Historiae, book VI, chapter VIII (in Latin), Amsterdam: Elzevir, page 231:

     Tatu ſeu Armadillo, variæ illius ſpecies.

     “Tatu” or “armadillo”, various species.]

• Nheengatu: tatú
• → French: tatou (see there for further descendants)
• → Portuguese: tatu (see there for further descendants)

• Pierre Belon (1553), chapter III, in Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges, book 1 (overall work in Middle French), Paris: G. Corrozet, page 5: “Tatou”
• André Thevet (1557–1558), chapter 24, in Les singularitez de la France Antarctique [The singularities of France Antarctique] (overall work in Middle French), Paris: Maurice de La Porte, page 48: “Tatou”
• Francisco Soares (1590–1596), “Tatu caualo armado”, in De alguãs Cousas mais notaueis do brasil e de alguñs costumes dos Indios [Of some of Brazil's most notable things and some Indian customs] (overall work in Portuguese), page 41; republished as Antônio Geraldo da Cunha, compiler, Coisas Notáveis do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro: INL, 1966, page 111, line 1055: “Tatu”

• Navarro, Eduardo de Almeida (2013), “tatu”, in Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil [Dictionary of Old Tupi: The Classical Indigenous Language of Brazil ] (overall work in Portuguese), São Paulo: Global, →ISBN, page 467, column 2
• Papavero, Nelson; Teixeira, Dante Martins (2014), Zoonímia tupi nos escritos quinhentistas europeus [Tupi zoonymy in the 16th-century European writings] (Arquivos NEHiLP; 3) (in Portuguese), São Paulo: FFLCH-USP, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 256

From Proto-Tupi-Guarani *tatu.

• IPA^(key): [taˈtu]
• Rhymes: -u
• Hyphenation: ta‧tu

tatu (plural tatukuéra)

1. armadillo

• Canese, Natalia Krivoshein de; Alcaraz, Feliciano Acosta (2016), “tatu”, in Ñe’ẽryru [Dictionary] (overall work in Spanish), Asunción: Instituto Superior de Lenguas, →ISBN, page 104, column 2

• Hyphenation: ta‧tu

Borrowed from Old Tupi tatu, from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *tatu, from Proto-Tupian *jat͡sju.

tatu m (plural tatus)

1. armadillo
2. (colloquial, South Brazil) booger
3. (colloquial, South Brazil) fool

• → Hunsrik: Tattu

Clipping of tatuagem.

tatu f (plural tatus)

1. (colloquial) tattoo

• “tatu”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “tatu”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French tatou.

• IPA^(key): /taˈtu/

tatu m (plural tatu)

1. armadillo (burrowing mammal covered with bony, jointed, protective plates)

• Because of its unusual ending, this noun cannot be inflected normally. Inflected forms are often avoided.

tatu (Cyrillic spelling тату)

1. dative/locative singular of tat

tatu (Cyrillic spelling тату)

1. accusative singular of tata

Shona cardinal numbers

<  2	3	4  >
Cardinal : tatu     Ordinal : chitatu

From Proto-Bantu *-tátʊ̀.

-tatú

1. three

Swahili numbers ^(edit)

	30
[a], [b] ←  2	3	4  →
Cardinal: -tatu     Ordinal: -a tatu     Fractional: theluthi

Inherited from Proto-Bantu *-tátʊ̀.

with prefix or preceded by -a

• (Unguja standard) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑ.tu/
• (Kimvita) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑ.tu/

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

in n class_(X)

• (Unguja standard) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑ.tu/
• (Kimvita) IPA^(key): /ˈtʰɑ.tu/

-tatu (declinable)

1. three

tatu class IX (plural tatu class X)

1. (card games) three

Playing cards in Swahili · karata za kucheza (layout · text)
ree, rea, rei	mbili	tatu	nne	tano	sita	saba
nane	tisa	kumi	ghulamu, mzungu wa tatu	malkia, mzungu wa pili, bibi	mfalme, mzungu wa nne, basha	jokari

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /taˈtu/ [t̪ɐˈt̪ʊ], /taˈtuʔ/ [t̪ɐˈt̪ʊʔ]
• Rhymes: -u, -uʔ
• Syllabification: ta‧tu

tatú or tatû (Baybayin spelling ᜆᜆᜓ)

1. alternative form of tato

• tuta

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

tatu

1. to mark

From Proto-Bantu *-tátʊ̀.

tatu

1. three

Yao cardinal numbers

<  2	3	4  >
Cardinal : tatu

Cognates include Swahili tatu.

tatu

1. three

This number follows a noun and takes the noun class characteristic prefix, e.g. mabweta gatatu (three boxes). See the Yao language article on Wikipedia for details on noun class prefixes.