Etymology

cp. OIcel teitr ‘glad, cheerful’ (Bj. regards as distinctively OWN) < PGmc *taita-; cp. OE tāt (known only as a name element), OS tēt, OHG zeiz ‘nice, delicate’.

PGmc Ancestor

*taita-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

teitr ‘glad, cheerful’
(ONP Fritzner teitr (adj.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far teitur, Icel teitur, runic Norw tAitʀ

OE Cognate

tāt (only as a name element)

Phonological and morphological markers

ON /ei/ &lt; PGmc */ai/

Summary category

A1*c

Attestation

A handful of ME occurrences, mainly N and alliterative.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 988, 1377; Cl 871

On the sense of Gaw 988, see PSn; on Gaw 1377, see Wright 1935: 346. Madden glosses as ‘fair, plump’ in Gaw, apparently guessing from context.

Bibliography

MED tait(e (adj.) , OED tait (adj.) , HTOED , Dance tayt, Bj. 50, 283, de Vries teita (teitr), Mag. teitur, Heid. taita-, Orel *taitaz, AEW tāt