heap, pile, a great many; thing
“J'ai ainsi eu, au cours de ma vie, des tas de contacts avec des tas de gens sérieux. J'ai beaucoup vécu chez les grandes personnes. Je les ai vues de très près. Ça n'a pas trop amélioré mon opinion.” — In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn't much improved my opinion of them.
Inherited from Middle French [Term?], from Old French tas (“heap, mass”), from Frankish *tas (“mass”), from Proto-Germanic *tassaz (“heap, mow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dāy- (“to divide, split, section, part, separate”). Akin to Middle Dutch tas, tasse (“heap, pile”) (Dutch tas), Middle Low German tas (“heap, stack of wheat or other grain, mow”), Old English tas (“heap, mow of corn or hay”). Compare also Scottish Gaelic dais (“heap”), Scots dass, Welsh dâs.