Tass

//tæs// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A heap, pile. obsolete, rare
  2. 2
    A cup or cupful. Northern-England, Scotland, dialectal

    ""Here, Dougal," said the Laird, "gie Steenie a tass of brandy down stairs, till I count the siller and write the receipt.""

  3. 3
    Synonym of tasse.
  4. 4
    An Oriental silk fabric, with gold or silver thread.
  5. 5
    plural of TAS form-of, plural
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union historical

    "In his remarks at the close of the summit, Lavrov also hailed the German government’s refusal to send Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine as a “responsible stance,” TASS reported."

  2. 2
    A village in Bács-Kiskun, Hungary.
  3. 3
    Former name of Nyírtass: a village in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Hungary.

Synonyms

All synonyms
nyírtasstashtassetosh

Example

More examples

""Here, Dougal," said the Laird, "gie Steenie a tass of brandy down stairs, till I count the siller and write the receipt.""

Etymology

Etymology 1

Partly from Middle English tas (“heap”), from Old French tas (“heap”), from Frankish *tas (“mass, pile”); and partly from Middle English taas (“heap, mow of corn”), from Old English tas (“heap, mow of grain”); both from Proto-Germanic *tasaz, *tassaz (“heap, mow, stack”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to divide, split, section, part, separate”). Related to Middle Dutch tas, tasse (“heap, pile”, Dutch tas), Middle Low German tas (“mow of hay or wheat”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐌲𐌰𐍄𐌰𐍃𐍃 (ungatass, “disorganised, irregular”); and possibly also to Old High German zetten (“to straw, fertilise”), Old Norse tað (“spread dung”). See tath.

Etymology 2

From Middle English *tasse, from Old French tasse (Modern French tasse (“cup, cupful”)). Cognate with Dutch tas (“cup”), German Tasse (“mug”). Doublet of tazza.

Etymology 3

From Middle English tasse, tache, from Old French tasse, tasche (“purse; pouch”), from Frankish *taskā (“pouch”), from Proto-Germanic *taskǭ, cognate with Old High German tasca (“pouch”), German Tasche (“pocket; pouch”).

Etymology 4

From Hindi; compare तसर (tasar, “shuttle (weaving)”).

Etymology 5

From Russian ТАСС (TASS), acronym of Телеграфное аге́нтство Советского Союза (Telegrafnoje agéntstvo Sovetskovo Sojuza).

Etymology 6

From Hungarian Tass.

Related phrases

ITAR-TASS

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.