atta

1.

atta, like the Gr. atta, a salutation used to old men, father; taken from the lang. of children (cf. Eust. ad Il. 1, 603), Paul. ex Fest. p. 11 Müll.

2.

Atta, ae, m., a surname for persons who walk upon the tips of their shoes, Paul. ex Fest. p. 11 Müll. (prob. from aittô = aissô, to spring, to hop). So the comic poet, C. Quintius Atta († 652 A.U.C.), of whose writings fragments yet remain; cf. Bähr, Lit. Gesch. p. 71; Teuffel, Rom. Lit. § 120; Both. Fragm. Poet. Scen. II. p. 97 sq.;

Fest. l. l. Upon the signif. of the name Horace plays with the words: Recte necne crocum floresque perambulet Attae Fabula, si dubitem, etc.,

Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 79; cf. Weich. Poet. Lat. p. 345 sq.—The ancestor of the Gens Claudia was an Atta, Suet. Tib. 1.