Tai

See also: Appendix:Variations of "tai"

English

Etymology 1

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /taɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Homophones: Thai, tie, Ty

Proper noun

Tai

1. A local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria.
2. A female given name from Chinese.
3. A branch of the Tai-Kadai language family, including Thai, Lao, Shan, and Zhuang.

Noun

Tai (plural Tais or Tai)

1. A descendant of speakers of a common proto-Tai language, including subpopulations which no longer speak a Tai language.
   • 1901, Census of India:

     The Tais first appeared in history in Yunnan, and from thence they migrated into Upper Burma. The earliest swarms appear to have entered that tract about two thousand years ago, and were small in number.

Translations

language family

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Burmese: ဂုံ (my) (gum)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: thaikieli
• French: taï (fr)
• Khmer: តៃ (tay)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Shan: တႆး (shn) (tái)
• Thai: ไท (th) (tai)

  Northern Thai: please add this translation if you can

• Vietnamese: Thái (vi)
• Zhuang: please add this translation if you can

Derived terms

• Taic

Etymology 2

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 邰 (Tái) and 斄 / 𭤎 (Tái).

Pronunciation

• enPR: tī

Proper noun

Tai

1. (historical) An ancient city and former polity under the Xia dynasty in present-day Wugong, Xianyang, Shaanxi, China.
   • 2016, M. Yong et al., “Originating Period of Tourism Culture”, in The General History of Chinese Tourism Culture‎^[1], →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 July 2023, pages 11, 26, 27‎^[2]:

     The first ancestor of Zhou tribe was Hou Ji who originally lived in Tai (today's Wugong of Shaanxi), and duke of Liu, his successor, moved to Bin (today's Bin county of Shaanxi), and then passed down to the lord of Dan. […]
     Qi later settled down in Tai (southwest of Wugong county of today's Shaanxi), which was located the center of the fertile land of Weibei Plain. […]
     The poem Duke Liu, which only has 6 sections and 234 Chinese characters in total, vividly narrates duke Liu's moving from Tai (today's Wugong county, Shaanxi province) to Bin (today's Binxian county, Shaanxi province) and big events regarding him in a very organized structure.

2. A surname from Chinese.

Translations

ancient town and state

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 邰 (zh) (Tái), 斄 / 𭤎 (zh) (Tái)

Etymology 3

From the Wade–Giles romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 代 (dài).

Proper noun

Tai

1. Alternative form of Dai.
   • 1979, Meishi Tsai, Contemporary Chinese Novels and Short Stories, 1949–1974: An Annotated Bibliography‎^[3], Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 142:

     Five short stories concern land reform, elections in the border region, and anti-Japanese activities:[...]
     e) “Feng-pao Tai-hsien-chʻeng” 風暴代縣城 (Storms in Tai County). A twenty-year-old anti-Japanese hero does not surrender even when he is captured and executed.

   • 1994 [145–86 BCE], Ssu-ma Ch’ien, edited by William Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records‎^[4], Indiana University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 114:

     Kuang-wu 廣武 lay in the southwestern part of today's Tai County 代縣, Shansi; Wu and Lu, 93.3392n.

   • 2002, Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History‎^[5], →OCLC, page 190:

     Kou-chu Mountains: today called Yen-men Mountains, a mountain range located to the southeast of Ma-yi, near present-day Tai county, in Shansi (Chung-kuo li-shih ti-t'u chi, 2:17-18, 3-10).

Etymology 4

From the Wade–Giles romanization of the Mandarin 戴 (Dài), as well as from its Cantonese pronunciation Daai³.

Pronunciation

• enPR: dī (Mandarin-derived)

Proper noun

Tai

1. A surname.
   • 2017 November 7, Lin Chia-nan, “Kerry logistics accused of work-related injury cover-up”, in Taipei Times‎^[6], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 November 2017, Taiwan News, page 3‎^[7]:

     The company on Nov. 3 last year asked an employee surnamed Tai (戴) to deliver 10 barrels of silane — a flammable alkaline substance — from Pingtung County’s Chaojhou Township (潮州) to Sinyuan Township (新園) without telling him what the cargo would be, Tseng said at a news conference on behalf of Tai, adding that the company did not even have a license to deliver the dangerous substance.

   • 2021 February 25, Ana Swanson, “Biden’s Pick for Trade Representative Promises Break With Past Policy”, in The New York Times‎^[8], sourced from Washington, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 February 2021, Economy:

     Katherine Tai, President Biden’s pick for United States trade representative, promised lawmakers during her confirmation hearing on Thursday that she would work with Congress to help reinvigorate the economy and aggressively enforce American trade rules against China, Mexico and other trading partners.
     Ms. Tai, in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, said her background challenging China’s unfair trade practices in the Obama administration had given her knowledge of “the opportunities and limitations in our existing toolbox.”

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Tai is the 7553^rd most common surname in the United States, belonging to 4401 individuals. Tai is most common among Asian/Pacific Islander (86.18%) individuals.

See also

• Austro-Tai
• Tai Hu

Anagrams

• AIT, IAT, ITA, TIA, Tia, ait, ita, tia

Estonian

Proper noun

Tai

1. Thailand (a country in Southeast Asia)

Japanese

Romanization

Tai

1. Rōmaji transcription of たい

Lun Bawang

Proper noun

Tai

1. a male given name

References

• ⁠Ricky Ganang et al. (2008), “Tai”, in Kemaloh Lundayeh–English Dictionary, Borneo Research Council, →OCLC, page 359

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English Thai.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tai̯/
• Rhymes: -ai̯

Adjective

Tai (feminine singular Tai, plural Tai, not comparable)

1. alternative form of Thai

Proper noun

Tai m or f by sense (plural Taiaid)

1. alternative form of Thai (“Thai person”)

Proper noun

Tai f or m

1. alternative form of Thai (“Thai language”)

Derived terms

• Gwlad Tai (“Thailaid”)

Further reading

• Griffiths, Bruce; Glyn Jones, Dafydd (1995), “Thai”, in Geiriadur yr Academi: The Welsh Academy English–Welsh Dictionary‎^[9], Cardiff: University of Wales Press, →ISBN
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “Tai”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies