Etymo

tattoo

A permanent design made in the skin.

Played on · Day 15 · word 5 of 5

Tattoo came from Tahitian.

How tattoo reached English

oldest first

  1. Tahitian

    tatau

    ‘Tattoo’

    into English

  2. English

    tattoo

    ‘A skin design’

The story of tattoo

The skin-design word tattoo comes from Tahitian tatau. The identically spelled military signal has a separate history through Dutch. Distinguishing the senses prevents two unrelated histories from being mistaken for one.

Source

Merriam-Webster · tattoo

The word’s etymology and recorded senses.

Related

The same spelling can hide two entirely different word families.

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