The story
- Old Tupi · derived fromtatu“armadillo”
- Tupi-Guarani · derived from
- English todaytatouay
From a compound word in a Tupi-Guarani language (compare tatu-ai), of which the first element is ultimately from Old Tupi tatu (“armadillo”). Compare Portuguese tatu, French tatou. The second element (ay or ai) may mean "wound" because of a belief that its fat was used on wounds, or "colored", or "worthless".
Words from the same roots
Old Tupitatu all →
tatou
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.