Oeddat tad query

I am continuing my quest to document all the little colloquialisms, contractions and variant forms you meet in actual Welsh but which the dictionaries and Teach Yourself books by and large don’t bother to mention. Today it is the turn of ‘Oeddat tad’, as in the exchange ‘Do’n i ddim, siwr’. ‘Oeddat tad!’. Now, this clearly doesn’t mean ‘You were a father!’, and from the context it has to mean something like ‘You jolly well were!’, but what exactly is this ‘tad’? Possibly father as a euphemism for God, so ‘you were, by God!’, or nothing to do with the word ‘tad’ meaning ‘father’? As usual enlightenment gratefully received.

This I believe, it’s just a tag at the end of a sentence that means nothing. I gives me the feeling of politeness, maybe I’m wrong.

1 Like

Yes, as gruntius said, it’s a kind of confirmatory tag. I guess the nearest thing to it in English (though not a literal translation) is “for sure” as in “oeddet tad” = “you were, for sure”.

I hadn’t hear of “tad” in this context before a couple of posts today. (Not that that means much). Is it likely to be a thing of the North?

I certainly hear it a lot up here but since I’ve been up here a while and don’t get down there very often, I can’t really say.

Yndy, tad :slight_smile:

3 Likes

We’ll all try to use it with you as much as possible so you get used to / fed up of it. And you’re sure to hear it around the town now it’s in your head.

3 Likes

Apparently ‘tad’ in this context is a contraction of ‘yn enw’r Tad’, i.e. yn enw Duw

1 Like

Any more Northernisms? Just realised Ive got 15 hrs to get Gogleddol-fluent :grimacing:

4 Likes

…although, despite knowing perfectly well what it means, my brain still auto-translates that as “Yes, Dad.” Followed mentally by “dwi’m yn dy dad di!”

1 Like

Croeso tad!

1 Like