English
tattered
Tattered comes from Old Norse tǫturr ‘tatters, rags’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *tat(t)uraz ‘tuft, bushy mass’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*tat(t)uraz1‘tuft, bushy mass’reconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350tǫturr2‘tatters, rags’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tatered2
- Englishearliest quotation 1784tattered2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Old Norse tǫturr
- 2 Wiktionary, English tattered
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1784, The House that Jack Built: “This is the Prieſt all ſhaven and ſhorn, that…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*tat(t)urazWiktionary, Old Norse tǫturr‘tuft, bushy mass’reconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350tǫturrWiktionary, English tattered‘tatters, rags’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tateredWiktionary, English tattered
- Englishearliest quotation 1784tatteredWiktionary, English tattered. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1784, The House that Jack Built: “This is the Prieſt all ſhaven and ſhorn, that…”
Formed from tatter + -ed
Proto-Germanic *tat(t)uraz ‘tuft, patch’
Old Norse tǫturr ‘tatters, rags’
Middle English tater
English tatter
The story
Originally, it was derived from the noun, but it was later reanalysed as a past participle (tatter + -ed), whereafter the verb came into being.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- ‘to split, cut, divide’
Today it means
adj Rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “tattered”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old Norse tǫturr. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *tat(t)uraz / tattered