Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a potato; also attrib.

1805		G. M’Indoe ‘Million of Potatoes’ in Chambers Edin. Jrnl (1835) 296: It’s lang ere I the taties need .
1826		Cumberland Pacquet 12 Dec. 4/5: She peels the taties wi’ her teeth.
1824		Annals of Sporting 1 Jan. 28: Huzza for ‘the tato’ by Raleigh ’twas planted.
1828		North Devon Jrnl 11 Dec. 3: Poor Roche's noddle was strangely altered, looking [...] like a 'Devonshire taty'.
1833		Satirist (London) 24 Mar. 519/2: [A] score of ragged lads [...] vending ‘taties all hot’.
1853		H. Hayman Pawnbroker’s Daughter 156: ‘What were you raking there for?’ ‘Taty-peelin’s an’ oyster shells.’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 413/1: Sometimes ’taties and milk for meals, and sometimes ’taties and fish, and sometimes – aye, often – ’taties and nothing.
1869		R.D. Blackmore Lorna Doone (1923) 234: A bucket of taties mashed with lard and cabbage.
1874		Dundee Courier 24 Nov. 3/5: The weather has been very changeable, but the ‘taties’ are all up in fair order.
1884		R.C. Hartranft Journal of Solomon Sidesplitter 108: ‘Faith!’ said an Irishman to a huckster, ‘your taties are too dear.’.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 17 June 595: The taties a’ in bloom. [Ibid.] 1 July 627: I’ll carry it upstairs for a cauld tattie.
1901		G. Douglas House with Green Shutters 216: They mind me o’ last year’s early tatties.
1917		A.S. Neill Dominie Dismissed 101: Aw was thinkin’ o’ the tattie’ digger [...] it seems an awfu’ roondaboot wye o’ liftin’ tatties.
1928		J. Agate Gemel in London 30: Guid skinny tatties, tae, an’ saut herrin.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 189: We went into a fish and tattie shop an’ had a fish supper.
1957		‘Big Bill’ Broonzy ‘Diggin’ My Potatoes’ 🎵 Now my vines is all green / ’Tatoes they all red.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 183: Potatoes are [...] ‘taties.’.
1984		P. Barker Blow Your House Down 2: You don’t wash your bloody neck either, do you? You could plant a row of taties in that.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 130: Tattie famine, my hole. It’s cause these fenian cunts are erse-shaggers.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 106: He usually fetched a meal from the cafeteria [...] it was always stew or mince and tatties.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 126: ‘Used to work on the tattie fields down Ayrshire way. Me and every other poor Irish bugger’.