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Archiver > ABOUT-WORDS > 2004-04 > 1080931353


From: "Bruce Todd" <>
Subject: Re: [ABOUT WORDS] titbits
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 13:42:33 -0500
References: <5.1.1.6.2.20040401132441.00a21700@pop.netcarrier.net> <002301c418cc$09aa0970$aff0a1cd@preferred>


Chamber's Dictionary of Etymology says -

tidbit -

About 1640 (in 1649 tit-bit), probably formed from dialectal English "tid" =
fond, solicitous, tender, wanton + "bit" = morsel.

tit -

Titmouse or other small bird. 1706, in Kersey's edition of Phillip's
Dictionary; shortened form of titmouse. The word is also sometimes used as a
shortening of titlark (1668).

tit -

nipple, teat. Old English titt, (about 950 in Lindisfarne Gospels). The
vulgar slang sense of a woman's breast is first recorded in 1928, in
American English.

Chambers Dictionary of the English Language says -

tit -

- variant of teat; a nipple
- a female breast
- a contemptuous person
- a tap, as in tit for tat
- any of various small songbirds
[ Icelandic - tittr = titmouse]
- a small, inferior, worthless, or worn-out horse
- a nag
- a girl
- a young woman
- (Scot.) a twitch; a tug; to tug
- (adv) promptly; at once
[ON - titt = often]

tidbit = same as titbit

titbit -

- a choice delicacy or item. Also esp in the US, tidbit

titch or tich -

- a very small person
[From the music-hall artist Harry Relph (1867 to 1928), known as Little
Tich]

John Ayto, in his Dictionary of Word Origins, says -
tit -

English as three separate words "tit". The oldest, "breast" [OE] belongs to
a West Germanic family of terms for "breast" or "nipple" that also includes
German "zitze" and Dutch "tit"; it presumably originated in imitation of a
baby's sucking sounds. From Germanic it was borrowed into the Romance
languages, giving Italian "tetta", Spanish "teta", Rumanian "tata", and
French "tette". The Old French ancestor of this, "tete" gave English "teat"
[13], which gradually replaced "tit" as the polite term. (Titillate [17] may
be ultimately related.) Tit, the bird, [18] is short for titmouse [14]. This
in turn was formed from an earlier and now defunct "tit", used in compounds
denoting "small things", and probably borrowed from a Scandinavian language,
and Middle English "mose", "titmouse", which came from a prehistoric
Germanic "maison" (source also of German "meise" and Dutch "mees", "tit".
And the "tit" [16] of "tit for tat" (which produced British rhyming slang
"titfer", "hat" [20] originally denoted a "light blow, tap", and was
presumably of onomatopoeic origin. (The tit of titbit [17], incidentally, is
probably a different word. It was originally tid- - as it still is in
American English - and it may go back ultimately to Old English "tiddre",
"frail".

(Numbers in square brackets represent the century in which the words first
appear.)

Jonathon Green says -

tid -

- a drunkard (Australian slang)

tit -

- a breast
- a nipple
- something extremely simple and usually rewarding, especially a criminal
scheme
- a small or half-grown horse
- a girl or woman
- the v a g i n a
[Scand. terms - titta = a little girl; tita = a small fish]
- a fool
- excellent, wonderful, good-looking [South African slang]

tit-bit -

- the v a g i n a; the p e n i s

titch - also tish -

- the drug phencyclidine

Hendrickson's Word and Phrase Origins says -

tit - also titman -

This word has no vulgar connotation among farmers in New England, who often
refer to the runt in a litter of pigs as a titman or tit. "Tit" here derives
from an Old Germanic word meaning "small", whereas "tit" as slang for a
woman's breast comes from the Old English "titt". A century ago, "titman"
meant a small or stunted person, as when Thoreau called his generation "a
race of titmen". "Titman" or "tit man" is of course in American slang a male
who prefers breasts to any other part of a woman's anatomy.

-----
In other sources -

tit = a nob, handle, or small protrusion

Tit-Bits = The R.F.C. weekly communique - Air Force - 1915 t0 1918

tit = a student at Durham University

titch = a flogging

titch = a small child

tit = the button, which when pressed, fires the gun; the bomb-switch pressed
by the bomb-aimer (Army Slang)

etc., etc.

During my browsing on this subject, I came across an interesting expression
for the top of the strike zone in baseball. Because of its location in
reference to the batter, it is known as "the nipple zone". But, you'll not
likely hear many commentators talk about it!

Be careful how you say "thank you" in Rumanian!
[Rum. tata = breast]

Bruce.


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