Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also da-da, tata) a goodbye, an act of farewell, thus attrib.

1856		Huddersfield Chron. (Yorks.) 28 June 3/5: They say their ‘ta! ta!’ as they start.
1861		G. Meredith Evan Harrington III 78: You are now at liberty. Ta-ta, as soon as you please.
1879		‘’Arry on Niggers’ in Punch 15 Mar. 113/2: I’ve bin doing the friendly ta-ta!
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Oct. 5/2: Kisses sweeten a farewell. They are the cream of a ta-ta, as it were.
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 145: She tooked ve t’ock an’ went ta-ta.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 58: We [...] lit out on the town trail without so much as stopping to shake a da-da to old Vincenzo.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Dec. 4/8: He bade ta-ta to that phalanx pale.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Woman’s Wear’ Sporting Times 30 July 1/3: But whatever you wear when you’re ‘going ta-ta,’ / It must be something more than a smile.
1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 10 Dec. [synd. col.] [He] sailed secretly with only a Broadway reporter bidding him ta-ta.
1928		J. Agate Gemel in London 157: Anyhow, it must be ta-ta for now.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 9 May [synd. col.] Three new plays took up the struggle for life last week, but all appeared destined for quick ta-tas.
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 210: So I come round to say ta-ta, like.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 21: You could say ta-ta to everybody.
1962		B. Behan Brendan Behan’s Island (1984) 98: sergent: What did he say ‘Ta, ta’ for? I didn’t give him anything. looney: That’s his English way of saying ‘goodbye.’.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 86: He was just fifteen percent of the L.B. Mayer I had heard about, but on his way out the door and ta-ta – and he knew it.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 29: Big Oscar said tata and headed off.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 90: He’d gone to have a tata tom tit in the backyard dunny.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 19: Maria and Guy [...] say ta-ta to Ticky.
2001		M. Coles Bible in Cockney 84: When he’d said ‘Ta-ta’ to all the people, ’e went to a Jack to ’ave a pray.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 209: ta-ta for now-now Cheery farewell, as extension of babytalk for a walk ‘going ta-tas.’.

2. a hat.

1979

(con. 1930s) J. Wolveridge He Don’t Know ‘A’ from a Bull’s Foot 6: When a woman said ‘I’ll have to be going, where’s my Ta-Ta?’ she meant ‘I’m off where’s my Titfer.’.