[L. tantī ‘of so much (value),’ gen. of tantum, neut. of tantus so much.] Of so much value, worth so much; worth while. Formerly also as an exclamation of contempt or depreciation: So much for …!
1590. Marlowe, Edw. II., I. i. Tanti; I’ll fawn first on the wind That glanceth at my lips, and flieth away.
1633. J. Fisher, Fuimus Troes, III. vii. F iij. No kingly menace or censorious frowne Doe I regard. Tanti for all your power!
1639. T. Lechford, Note-Bk. (1885), 89. If the State & the Elders thinke that the matters I treate on are not tanti or that they are just occasion of Disturbance.
a. 1640. Day, Parl. Bees, Prol. That slights your errant or his art that penn’d it, Cry Tanti: bid him kisse his Muse and mend it.
1757. Warburton, Lett. to Garrick, 25 Jan., in Garrick’s Corr. (1831), I. 78. Is it tanti to kill yourself, in order to leave a vast deal of money to your heirs?
1838. Athenæum, 29 Sept., 415/2. Was it quite tanti to write a fresh small monograph so soon after Mr. Froude’s ‘Bunyan.’
