Plural of tate, which can mean a tuft of hair or wool, or in dialect, a small child.
From Old English tægel (tail), which evolved into dialect terms for tufts of hair. The word 'tate' is primarily preserved in British and Scottish dialects and is increasingly rare.
The word 'tate' for a little child survives mainly in Scottish dialect—it's like watching a living fossil of English where one ancestor language (Old English) branched into regional versions that kept completely different words alive.
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