Word or phrase origins.

[Wildcard Ky]

Do you know the origins of any words or phrases that are commonly used today? Here's one for you.

The word "Shit" began as an acronym. A few hundred years ago, manure was the only form of fertilizer available. It was shipped overseas just as any other product was. The manure was completely dried and put into crates. The crates were loaded into the holds of ships and sent off.

Many ships carrying manure mysteriously vanished back then and no one knew why. Finally someone figured out that when the manure was put into the bottom of a ship, it inevitably got wet. When it got wet, it gave off methane, an explosive gas. Lanterns were the only form of lighting available so you had an open flame and explosive gas in the bottom of ship........Boom.

To remedy this problem, it was decided that manure would no longer be transported in the bottom of a ship where it could get wet. A standard symbol was created to let all crews know to store the cargo at a higher level in the ship.

The Symbol was the stenciled letters SHIT.

S (hip)
H (igh)
I
T (ransit).

That's the origin of the word shit.

 

[snooper]

... A few hundred years ago, manure was the only form of fertilizer available. It was shipped overseas just as any other product was.

At last.

An admissiojn that the Americans deliberately ship their shit overseas.

 

[Guest]

Do you know the origins of any words or phrases that are commonly used today? Here's one for you.

The word "Shit" began as an acronym. A few hundred years ago, manure was the only form of fertilizer available. It was shipped overseas just as any other product was. The manure was completely dried and put into crates. The crates were loaded into the holds of ships and sent off.

Many ships carrying manure mysteriously vanished back then and no one knew why. Finally someone figured out that when the manure was put into the bottom of a ship, it inevitably got wet. When it got wet, it gave off methane, an explosive gas. Lanterns were the only form of lighting available so you had an open flame and explosive gas in the bottom of ship........Boom.

To remedy this problem, it was decided that manure would no longer be transported in the bottom of a ship where it could get wet. A standard symbol was created to let all crews know to store the cargo at a higher level in the ship.

The Symbol was the stenciled letters SHIT.

S (hip)
H (igh)
I
T (ransit).

That's the origin of the word shit.

No shit!?

Lou

 

[Guest]

Note Saxon use c. 1000 AD. - Perdita
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Entry printed from Oxford English Dictionary Online
© Oxford University Press 2004

shit, shite, n. SECOND EDITION 1989 - Not now in decent use.

(t, at) Forms: 1 scitte, 3 schit, 4 schyt, 6 Sc. schit, s(c)heitt(e, 6- shit, shite. [f. root of next.
There are prob. two or three different formations: OE. *scite dung (= MLG. schite), scitte diarrha; also mod.E. dial. shite f. the vb. (cf. ON. skît-r, MLG. schît). The form shite now chiefly occurs as an occasional jocular or quasi-euphemistic variant.]

1. a. Excrement from the bowels, dung.

a1585 POLWART Flyting w. Montgomerie 733 Fond flytter, shit shytter. 1961 F. KING Custom House xix. 275 Leave that shit alone! Filthy dog. 1967 P. ROTH Portnoy's Complaint (1969) 47 Trying to clear my feet of my undershorts before anybody can peek inside, where..I always discover in the bottommost seam a pale and wispy brushstroke of my shit. 1973 E. JONG Fear of Flying (1974) ii. 25 In general the toilets run swift here and the shit disappears long before you can leap up and turn around to admire it. 1980 K. J. DOVER Greeks ii. 38 We might pick on his revelation of what Greek warfare was like... Blood and shit and pus are the same..in all ages.

a1732 LD. BINNING Jolly Hawk viii. in North Country Garland (1824) 52 His s..te it stinks o' ling!

b. A contemptuous epithet applied to a person.

1508 KENNEDIE Flyting w. Dunbar 496 [Thou art] A schit, but wit. a1605 MONTGOMERIE Flyting w. Polwart 85 Wanshapen shit. Ibid. 365. 1886 W. Somerset Word-bk., Shit, a term of contempt. (Very com.) He's a regular shit. Applied to men only. 1889 N.W. Linc. Gloss. 1921 D. H. LAWRENCE Let. 10 Nov. (1962) II. 673 They are both such abject shits it is a pity they can't be flushed down a sewer. 1922 E. M. FORSTER Let. 27 Sept. in P. N. Furbank E. M. Forster (1978) II. v. 106, I think that most Indians, like most English people, are shits. 1926 C. CONNOLLY Let. 3 Aug. in Romantic Friendship (1975) 157 Her son is a complete little shit though..witty and humorous beyond his years. 1941 J. REITH Diary 20 Oct. (1975) v. 281 Beaverbrookto no one is the vulgar designation shit more appropriately appliedtelephoned about park railings. 1956 I. MURDOCH Flight from Enchanter xii. 176 ‘You beastly contemptible shit of a crook,’ said Hunter. 1968 Observer 29 Sept. (Colour Suppl.) 25/3 We hate the staff here. Keep away from them as much as possible. The shits. 1975 D. LODGE Changing Places ii. 67 Is that little shit still shooting his mouth off in there? 1976 J. I. M. STEWART Young Patullo viii. 165 She was a third-class harlot who made up for it by being a first-class shit. 1978 J. IRVING World according to Garp xii. 217 Oh, I never knew what shits men were until I became a woman.

c. In negative contexts: Anything. Phr. not to give a shit: not to care at all.

1922 JOYCE Ulysses II. 587 He's a whitearsed bugger. I don't give a shit for him. 1969 W. LABOV in J. E. Alatis Teaching Standard Eng. to Speakers of Other Languages (1970) 15 The average whitey out here got everything, you dig? And the nigger ain't got shit, y'know. 1970 Landfall (N.Z.) Sept. 218 Nobody gives a shit for nobody. 1973 D. BARNES See Woman (1974) I. 19 Don't tell them shit. The skipper is on his way, and he'll decide what to tell them. 1978 K. AMIS Jake's Thing iii. 30 An interviewer..being very rude to a politician..and the politician not giving a shit.

1971 B. W. ALDISS Soldier Erect 137 Do you think Churchill gives a shite for the Fourteenth Army?

d. transf. Rubbish, trash.

1930 A. HUXLEY Let. 7 Jan. (1969) 326 In every case something precious and lovely had been taken away and replaced by a mound of shit. 1957 I. CROSS God Boy (1958) xxii. 192 They just tell me she's in a hospital and that God knows best and all that shit. 1966 L. COHEN Beautiful Losers I. 8 Listen, F., don't give me any of your mystical shit. 1976 M. SPARK Takeover x. 149 Even if it's shit it gets people thinking about religion. 1977 Rolling Stone 5 May 6/2, I enjoyed Simmons' logic that Shakespeare is ‘shit’ simply because he can't understand it.

1976 New Musical Express 17 Apr. 11/4 If you have to spend a lot of time with people who are interested in their chess boards and little card games and shite like that, it can drive you nuts.

e. fig. Misfortune, unpleasantness. Esp. in phr. to be in the shit: to be in trouble or difficulty.

1937 PARTRIDGE Dict. Slang 758/2 sh**, in the, in trouble. 1958 S. BECKETT Malone Dies 98 In any case, here I am back in the shit. 1971 B. W. ALDISS Soldier Erect 162 We were all in the shit together and it was madness to try and escape it. 1977 Rolling Stone 24 Mar. 55/5, I feel really lucky that I've had the opportunity to go through some of the heartaches and shit we've been through the past year.

f. An intoxicating or euphoriant drug, spec. cannabis, heroin, or marijuana.

1950 L. RIVERS in Neurotica Autumn 45 Senor! You want some shit? How much? Senor, I have great stuff. 1960 J. GELBER Connection II. 88 At that time shit was relatively scarce and I had to go out of the city to score. 1972 Daily Tel. 3 Apr. 8 Acid (LSD) and ‘shit’ (cannabis), were on open sale, and..a notice was pinned to a tent stating: ‘Anybody with some black shit for sale, ask for Irish Mick.’ 1980 S. WILSON Dealer's War III. ix. 229 ‘Hope it's good shit,’ I whispered as he swabbed my arm.

g. In phrases up shit creek: in an unpleasant situation or awkward predicament (cf. up the creek s.v. CREEK n.1 2c); shit out of luck: (see quot. 1942); (when) the shit flies or hits the fan: alluding to a moment of crisis or its disastrous consequences; to beat, kick, or knock the shit out of (someone): to thrash or beat severely; to get one's shit together (U.S.): to collect oneself, to manage one's affairs.

1937 J. DOS PASSOS U.S.A. I. 70 We're up shit creek now for fair. 1942 BERREY & VAN DEN BARK Amer. Thes. Slang §219/10 Unlucky..shit out of luck, (all) washed up. 1966 P. O'DONNELL Sabre-Tooth iv. 62 We're all going to be there, where the shit's flying. 1966 L. COHEN Beautiful Losers I. 122 Let's beat the shit out of him. 1967 PARTRIDGE Dict. Slang Suppl. 1355/2 Wait till the major hears that! Then the shit'll hit the fan! 1968 A. DIMENT Bang bang Birds ix. 172 Should the shit hit the fan and the Swedes come over stroppy, he could say..‘weren't nothing to do with us, son!’ 1969 Win 15 May 31/2 We sense the government and its agents daily becoming more ineffective as we get our own shit together. 1971 B. W. ALDISS Soldier Erect 260 The Japs..were meek and respectful... The shit had been knocked out of them. 1973 Black World June 62 He sure didn't want a family..to support..just when he was ‘..gettin' my shit together to finish school’. 1977 H. FAST Immigrants III. 171 It's been too quiet. Tomorrow, the shit hits the fan. 1978 M. PUZO Fools Die i. 10, I will show you the artist getting the shit kicked out of him for the sake of his art. Ibid. xl. 450 So you see, my dear, you're shit out of luck. 1981 Private Eye 31 July 11/2 If they'd followed her this far up shit creek it's a long way to walk back.

2. a. Diarrha, esp. in cattle. Obs.
Cf. the mod. dial. shoot with the same meaning (but not etymologically connected).

c1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 226 Wi on e men mete untela melte & ecirre on yfele wætan & scittan. a1118 FLORENCE OF WORCESTER Chron. ex Chronicis an. 987 (Thorpe 1848) 148 Lues animalium, quæ Anglice Scitta vocatur, Latine autem fluxus interaneorum dici potest. [Copied by Higden Polychron. (Rolls) VII. 50 (with spelling shitta). Hence the following quot.] 1387 TREVISA ibid. 51 And bestes [had] e schyt.

b. the shits, diarrha (in persons). Also fig.

1947 Amer. Speech XXII. 305 I'd rather die with the screaming shits. 1967 Coast to Coast 1965-6 200 Women have always given me the shits. 1977 Zigzag Mar. 8/1 ‘I've had the shits,’ he cried. ‘You want to avoid the food.’

3. a. Comb.: In terms of abuse, as shit-ass, -bag, -breeches, -face, -head, -heel, -pot; shit-word, abuse; b. shit-hole (see quot. 1937); usu. fig.; shit-hot a. (see quot. 1961); also used loosely as a term of approbation; shit-house a privy; also in gen. use as a term of disgust or contempt (freq. attrib.); shit-kicker U.S., a rustic; shit-list (see quots. 1942, 1945); shit-scared a., extremely frightened; shitwork, (esp. in the language of feminists) work considered to be menial or routine, esp. housework.

1942 BERREY & VAN DEN BARK Amer. Thes. Slang §396 Terms of disparagement..shit-ass. 1971 B. MALAMUD Tenants 165 He then cried out, ‘Oh what a hypocrite shitass I am to ask a Jew ofay for advice how to express my soul work.’
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1937 PARTRIDGE Dict. Slang 758/2 Sh**-bag, the belly; in pl., the guts. 1961 Ibid. Suppl. II. 1269/1 Shit-bag,..an unpleasant person. 1968 BETHELL & BURG tr. Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward I. viii. 121 All he could see was this shitbag wolfing a chicken bone. 1973 Shit-bag [see MENTAL a.1 1c].
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1922 JOYCE Ulysses 428 Hey, shitbreeches, are you doing the hattrick? 1937 W. L. G. COWAN Loud Report II. 97 ‘Hallo, s face.’ 1973 M. AMIS Rachel Papers 115 ‘Why,’ I wondered, ‘did old shitface come round? What was he after?’
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1961 PARTRIDGE Dict. Slang Suppl. 1269/2 Shit-head, an objectionable person. 1971 J. MICHENER in Reader's Digest Apr. 240 Again the girls were particularly abusive, taunting the guards, calling them ‘shit-heads’, ‘half-ass pigs’. 1979 P. NIESEWAND Member of Club viii. 56 You lying shithead!
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1935 J. HARGAN Gloss. Prison Lang. 7 Shitheel, an inmate who considers himself superior to all the others. 1939 J. STEINBECK Grapes of Wrath 212 And Mae, when she is alone with Al, has a name for them. She calls them shit~heels. 1977 H. FAST Immigrants VI. 359 You could have sent a registered letter, or that little shitheel of an errand boy, Clancy?
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1937 PARTRIDGE Dict. Slang 758/2 Sh**-hole, the rectum. 1969 A. CORNELISEN Torregreca v. 176, I made up my mind early I wasn't going to..spend my life..in one of those shit-holes. 1977 Zigzag June 28/3 John went to a Catholic school in Caledonian Road‘a right shit-hole’.
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1961 PARTRIDGE Dict. Slang Suppl. 1269/2 Shit-hot, unpleasantly enthusiastic,..very skilful, cunning, knowledgeable. 1973 M. AMIS Rachel Papers 199 They've elected a new guy... I don't know anything about him. Except that he's shit-hot. 1976 Sounds 11 Dec. 29/2 Chuck Leavell's pretty damn good all the time, and the rhythm section's still shit-hot.
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1795 in G. MacGregor Coll. Writings of Graham (1883) II. 247 For honour of the Scots, we have his [Wallace's] effigy in the shite-houses to this very day. 1922 JOYCE Ulysses 335 Cute as a shithouse rat. 1972 G. MORLEY Jockey rides Honest Race 173 You're probably right..but I still feel shithouse about it. 1973 J. WAINWRIGHT Devil you Don't 46 Have you explained all this shithouse philosophy to the rate-payers? 1976 P. CAVE High flying Birds ii. 19 ‘Nothing wrong with itsafe as a brick-built shithouse,’ I assured her. 1977 Zigzag Aug. 5/2 If you're banned in town A and then banned in town B, well then town C has just got to ban you or it's, ‘well what kind of shithouse place are you running there, councillor?’
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1966 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1964 XLII. 29 The commonplace generic term for any rustic, shit kicker. 1969 L. MICHAELS Going Places 23, I was a city boy. No innocent shitkicker from Jersey. 1969 Rolling Stone 28 June 14/1 Saturday nights the avid shitkicker can whoop it up.
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1942 BERREY & VAN DEN BARK Amer. Thes. Slang §336/2 Blacklist,..shit or stink list. 1945 Amer. Speech XX. 263 In the vulgar talk of the barracks, soldiers uninhibitedly use the phrase shit list, for a list of men whom one dislikes and is anxious to see embarrassed or inconvenienced. 1965 Liberator Aug. 23/1 Sweet Mac is on my shit list. 1970 R. D. ABRAHAMS Positively Black i. 8 Moynihan had made it onto the black shit-list in spite of his obvious sympathies.
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1937 PARTRIDGE Dict. Slang 758/2 Sh**-pot, a thorough or worthless humbug (person); a sneak. 1971 B. MALAMUD Tenants 132 Lesser, don't think you so hot, You got the look of a shit-pot.
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1958 P. SCOTT Mark of Warrior 169 I'm shit-scared stuck up there with all my men gone. 1977 Rolling Stone 13 Jan. 12/4 Stewart was ‘shit scared’ about opening night.
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a1250 Owl & Night. 286 if ich mid chauling..Hom schende & mid fule worde So herdes do oer mid schit worde.
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1968 No More Fun & Games Oct. 43 Along with their equal integrated position they can equally misuse their less political sophisticated sisters to do their shitwork. 1972 Guardian 30 Mar. 13/3 They call it..‘shit work’ and they equate it with emptying dustbins and crawling on your belly in a coal mine... The resentment against housework came up like a great surging wave. 1980 D. SPENDER Man Made Lang. i. 48 Because of its parallels with housework, Fishman argues that women do the shitwork in conversation.
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c. attrib. or as adj.
1968 H. DAVIES Beatles ix. 66, I think it [sc. jazz] is shit music, even more stupid than rock and roll. 1971 B. MALAMUD Tenants 104 He sat on the bed with a shit smile on his mouth. 1973 BOYD & PARKES Dark Number v. 55 ‘Look, so you've got a crippled leg.’.. He winced at that and turned away. ‘That was a shit thing to say.’
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APPENDED FROM ADDITIONS 1993
shit, n.
Add: [2.] c. (As a count-noun.) An act of defecation.
1928 in A. W. Read Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigraphy in Western N. Amer. (1935) 75 Roses are red Violets are blue I took a shit & so did you. 1961 PARTRIDGE Dict. Slang Suppl. 1113/2 Gone for a shit. 1978 K. AMIS Jake's Thing v. 52 She monitored his shits, managing to be on reconnaissance patrol past the lavatory door or standing patrol in sight of it whenever he went in and out. 1986 Guardian 29 Mar. 21/7 If all those millions of people in Glasgow would just come out here at the weekend and each of them would pick up a stone and put it in his pocket and each of them would have a shit, I should have the best farm in the whole of Scotland.

 

[oggbashan]

Thank you, Perdita.

The definitive definitions of shit.

Just what we need to brighten our day.

The definition that started this thread is crap.

Regards from Og

 

[Guest]

The definition that started this thread is crap.

Yep.

anytime, Perdita

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Flash in the pan: This is a reference to the days of flint lock muskets. When you prepared to fire one you poured a bit of black powder in the pan, this is what actually caught the spark of the flint and its fire traveled down a nipple into the charge in the barrel. But if done improperly then you would get a flsh in the pan, but the gun wouldn't fire.

Half cocked: Also a gun reference, many old style flint locks had a half cock position between cocked and closed. You would load the weapon in half cocked position, so that a misfire wouldn't blow your hand off. But many men, especially oung recruits intheir first battle would get so excited they would take aim & try to fire with the gun half cocked.

Lock Sotck & Barrel: Also from the time of flint locks. These are the primary parts to a gun. the lock or firing mechanisim, stock & barrel.

-Colly

 

[Guest]

Colly and guns, how dykey . P.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Colly and guns, how dykey . P.

LOL,

Know where tits came from Dita? the word I mean

-Colly

 

[Guest]

tits

Please tell me. P.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Re: tits

Please tell me. P.

This is from son of big John's bathroom reader so I cannot swear to the veracity, but one of the original designers of a working bra was named Otto Titsling

-Colly

 

[cantdog]

Up my neck o the woods, deah, we use a lot of maritime expressions.

Mosyt people now don't realize the references, but there are a lot of maritime phrases in common use here.

a wide berth

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

under weigh

taking a new tack

showing one's (true) colors

and so forth.

 

[cantdog]

Re: Re: tits

This is from son of big John's bathroom reader so I cannot swear to the veracity, but one of the original designers of a working bra was named Otto Titsling

-Colly

Absolutely true, but the story of the Mr. Crapper who invented the flush toilet is false.

cantdog

 

[Guest]

back to the OED

tit, n.1 A sharp or sudden pull; a tug, jerk, twitch.

1340 HAMPOLE Pr. Consc. 1915 Yf at tre war tite pulled oute At a titte with al e rotes oboute. 1581 Satir. Poems Reform. xliii. 75 Sa Fortoun mountit neuer man sa hie,..Bot with ane tit sho turnis the quheill. 1827 KINLOCH Ballad Bk. 63 He gied the tow a clever tit That brocht her out at the lum. 1881 PAUL Aberdeen. 111 The craetur' gied a tit, an' afore I kent fat I was about, I was lyin' o' the braid o' my back.

tit, n.2
1. In phr. tit for tat [app. a variation of tip for tap, known a century earlier: see TAP n.2, TIP n.2, and cf. prec. But perh. wholly or partly onomatopic.] One blow or stroke in return for another; an equivalent given in return (usually in the way of injury, rarely of benefit); retaliation. Also used as rhyming slang for ‘hat’. Cf. TITFER.
The whole phrase is used sometimes as a n., sometimes as adj. or adv.; also, elliptically or as int.
1556 J. HEYWOOD Spider & F. xxxvii. 26 That is tit for tat in this altricacion. 1586 J. HOOKER Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 94/1 That they would not sticke to set his seruants at libertie, so he would redeliuer them the youth of the citie, which was nothing else in effect, but tit for tat. 1710 ADDISON Tatler No. 229 3, I was threatened to be answered Weekly Tit for Tat. 1809 J. QUINCY in Life 181, I shall..give..what politicians call a Rowland for their Oliver, and what the ladies term tit for tat. 1881 SAINTSBURY Dryden iv. 80 A fair literary tit-for-tat in return for the Rehearsal. 1891 Daily News 16 July 5/1 Fair Traders, Reciprocity men, or believers in the tit-for-tat plan of dealing with other nations. 1905 H. A. VACHELL The Hill viii, Tit for tat. If I do this for you, will you do something for me? 1925 FRASER & GIBBONS Soldier & Sailor Words & Phrases 285 Tit for tat, hat. (Rhyming slang). 1930, 1937 [see TITFER].

2. A light stroke or tap; a slap: cf. TIP n.2
1808 JAMIESON, Tyte, tit... 2. A slight stroke, a tap. 1891 Hartland Gloss. s.v., I'll gi'e 'ee a tit under the yur.
3. Comb.: tit-tat, an imitation of the sound of alternating taps or blows; tit-tat-toe, (a) the beginning of a formula used in ‘picking’ or fixing upon a person or thing, hence a children's game; (b) dial. or U.S. = noughts and crosses (see NOUGHT n. 7c); see also TICK-TACK-TOE, tip-tap-toe s.v. TIP-TAP.
In quot. a 1700 imitating the noise made in toddling. The precise nature of the activity referred to in quot. 1865 is uncertain and cannot be determined from the context.
a1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Tit-tat, the aiming of Children to go at first. 1855 A. MANNING O. Chelsea Bun-house xiii. 211, I played at Tit-tat-to with Joe, and posed him with hard riddles. 1865 TROLLOPE Can you forgive Her? II. xxi. 164 The signing-clerk's clerk..playing tit-tat-to by himself upon official blotting-paper. 1888 B. LOWSLEY Gloss. Berks. Words & Phrases 164 Tit-tat-toe, the first game taught to children when they can use a slate pencil, the words ‘Tit-tat-toe, My first go’, being said by the one who first makes three crosses, or noughts in a row. 1898 A. T. SLOSSON Dumb Foxglove 11 Checkers, and tit-tat-toe, and fox-and-geese, and set down games like those. 1909 Daily Chron. 22 July 7/1 Drawing to be diversified by noughts and crosses and ‘tit tat toe’. 1961 New Scientist 9 Nov. 367 Noughts and Crosses (known in America as Tit-Tat-To). 1973 J. SCARNE Encycl. Games 583 Tit-tat-toe. This simple game, also called Noughts and Crosses in Great Britain, is played on diagrams consisting of intersecting parallel lines.

tit, n.3
Also 6 tyt, titte, 6-8 titt, 7 tytt. [app. of onomatopic origin, as a term for a small animal or object; found also to some extent in Scandinavian and Icel.; cf. Norw. dial. titta little girl, tîta a little fish, trout, sprout, minute growth, little kernel, little ball or marble, Icel. tittr a little plug or pin, also, a titmouse (Norw. tite): see also TITLING, TITMOUSE, in which tit occurs much earlier than by itself.]
I. 1. a. A name for a horse small of kind, or not full grown; in later use often applied in depreciation or meiosis to any horse; a nag. Now rare.
1548 PATTEN Exped. Scotl. Dj, He rode on a trottynge tyt well woorth a coople of shillynges. 1563 GOLDING Cæsar IV. (1565) 85 But such [beastes] as are bred among them though they be littel tittes & yll shapen, they make..to be very good of labor. 1598 FLORIO, Bidetto, a little horse, a nagge, a tit, a little doing horse. 1616 SURFL. & MARKH. Country Farme 538 If you will let them haue anie Tytt or meane Iade to goe before them, and lead the way. 1706 PHILLIPS (ed. Kersey), Tits, a Country-word, for small Cattel. 1726 Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), Tit, a little Horse, and some call a Horse of a middling Size a double Tit. 1797 Sporting Mag. IX. 338, I keep a curricle and a brace of tits. 1821 SCOTT Kenilw. xi, I have as good a tit as ever yeoman bestrode. 1894 SIR J. D. ASTLEY 50 Years Life II. 186 A very promising tit named Woodstock.

b. fig. of a person, etc. See also 2. Obs.
1706-7 FARQUHAR Beaux Strat. I. i, As to our Hearts, I grant 'ye, they are as willing Tits as any within Twenty Degrees. a1734 NORTH Exam. I. iii. §40 (1740) 145 As the willing Tits of the Party, and weaker Brethren.

2. a. A girl or young woman: often qualified as little: cf. chit; also applied indiscriminately to women of any age (? dial.). (a) Usually in depreciation or disapproval: esp. one of loose character, a hussy, a minx. (b) Sometimes in affection or admiration, or playful meiosis. (Common in 17th and 18th c.; now low slang.)
1599 MIDDLETON Micro-Cynicon Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 122 He hath his tit, and she likewise her gull; Gull he, trull she. 1606 Sir G. Goosecappe IV. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 69 Hang am Tytts! ile pommell my selfe into am. 1606 Choice, Chance, etc. (1881) 66 His Dad a Tinker, and his Dam a Tit. 1693 Humours Town 11 My little Tit..loves the Town, as well as my self. 1787 BECKFORD Italy (1834) II. 363 A bevy of young tits dressed out in a fantastic, blowzy style..drew their chairs round us [at an assembly in Madrid]. 1837 T. CREEVEY Papers, etc. (1904) II. 324, I am sure from Lady Tavistock that she thinks the Queen a resolute little tit. 1886 FENN Master Cerem. vii, She's a pretty little tit. 1922 E. R. EDDISON Worm Ouroboros xxxi. 397 The Demons,..since they had a strong loathing for such ugly tits and stale old trots, would no doubt hang her up or disembowel her. 1932 S. O'FAOLAIN Midsummer Night Madness 62 I'm sorry for his two tits of sisters, though. 1969 H. E. BATES Vanished World ix. 87 ‘The old tit’ doddered forth... I see her as a kind of..diminutive nun, untouched and unprotected.

b. Rarely applied to a lad or young man. Obs.
1599 MASSINGER, etc. Old Law III. ii, Must young court tits Play tomboys' tricks with her, and he [her husband] live?

II. 3. A word used in comb. in the names of various small birds as TITLARK, TITLING, TITMOUSE, TOMTIT, q.v. Used alone, as a shortened form of TITMOUSE, applied to a. any bird of the genus Parus, and, more widely, any member of the family Paridæ; b. With qualification: some birds of other families as the bearded tit: see TITMOUSE 2b; hill-tit: see HILL n. 4f.

1706 PHILLIPS (ed. Kersey), Tit, or Titmouse, a little Bird. 1802 Marsh Tit [MARSH 4b]. 1831 Bearded Tit [see reed-pheasant s.v. REED n.1 14]. 1843 [see COAL-TIT]. 1845 Blue-tit [BLUE a. 12a]. 1851 Bottle-tit [BOTTLE n.1 5]. 1859 TENNYSON Geraint & Enid 275 Tits, wrens, and all wing'd nothings peck him dead! 1880 A. R. WALLACE Isl. Life ii. 20 These are all the European tits, but there are many others. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 14 Apr. 15/2 No longer do bands of tits drift through the woods or along the hedgerows... Strange..that the long tailed tit, the only species of the group that builds its nest in a bush, should be the first to start.

c. attrib. and Comb., as tit-like adj.; tit-babbler, one of several species of hill-tits, esp. Trichostoma rostratum; tit-bell, a bell-shaped container filled with seeds, fat, etc., and suspended out of doors to supply food to tits and other birds of similar habits; tit-pipit, a name of the TITLARK or meadow pipit, Anthus pratensis; tit-warbler, ‘a bird of the subfamily Parinæ’ (Swainson).
1893 NEWTON Dict. Birds 26 The..Babblers, often with a prefix such as Bush-Babbler, Shrike-Babbler, *Tit-Babbler,..belong chiefly to the Ethiopian and Indian Regions.
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1934 J. M. CROSTHWAITE in H. M. Batten Our Garden Birds 184 Mr. Mortimer Batten has..invented and developed many ingenious and artistic feeding devices... The *tit bell is filled with melted fat, which is allowed to set, after which the bell is hung. 1976 Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 3 Nov. 12/3 Another useful device for feeding tits and woodpeckers is to make a ‘tit bell’.
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1907 Westm. Gaz. 15 Mar. 4/2 But all the rest are bustling about in their own restless, *tit-like manner.
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1819 G. SAMOUELLE Entomol. Compend. 303 Inhabits the black grouse and *tit-pippit.
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tit, n.4 [Of uncertain and possibly diverse origin; in sense 1 perh. related to TIT n.1 or n.2; in sense 2 perh. = TEAT.]

1. Nail-making. A loose piece of steel used to jerk the finished nail out of the bore.
1902 BARING-GOULD Nebo the Nailer ii, Working in the bore is the ‘tit’ that..ejects the finished nail. 1912 Let. to Editor, The ‘tit’ is a small loose plain piece of steel which is placed in the ‘bore’ for the purpose of ejecting the nail from the bore after the nail is headed.

2. A small core of metal accidentally left by the shifting of the drill point in boring a hole.
1884 F. J. BRITTEN Watch & Clockm. 129 If the centre is missed a tit is formed which gives trouble.

tit, n.5 [? Infantile variant of KIT n.3] Used as a call to a cat.
1828 Craven Gloss., Tit, this, with its adjunct puss, is frequently used for calling a cat. 1837 DICKENS Pickw. xvi, ‘It must have been the cat, Sarah’, said the girl... ‘Puss, puss, pusstit, tit, tit’.

tit, n.6 [Var. of TEAT.]
1. a. Var. of TEAT. Now Obs. exc. dial. and in senses below.
b. pl. A woman's breasts. Also in sing. slang (orig. U.S.).
1928 in A. W. Read Classical Amer. Graffiti (1935) 80 A girl may sit & finger her tits and play with her cunt all day. 1947 C. WILLINGHAM End as Man 93 ‘Well,’ said Munro. ‘That girl ought to go to Hollywood.’ ‘She wouldn't make it out there,’ blushed Wilson. ‘No tits.’ 1962 J. HELLER Catch-22 xviii. 181 How do you expect anyone to believe you have a liver condition if you keep squeezing the nurses tits every time you get a chance. 1969 Oz May 40/2 Mary Anne Shelley, with the best tits off-off-Broadway. 1980 J. BARNES Metroland I. xi. 63 Tits? I asked myself in furtive panic. Well, you couldn't really see, not with that dress.
c. to get on one's tits or (occas.) tit: to irritate intensely, get on the nerves of. slang.
1945 BAKER Austral. Lang. vi. 121 Someone or something disagreeable is said to get on one's..tit. 1966 ‘L. LANE’ ABZ of Scouse 40 Gets on me tits, annoys me very much. 1967 N. FREELING Strike out where not Applicable 114 Those women, who even wear a corset under riding breeches..they're the ones who get on my tits. 1973 P. WHITE Eye of Storm vii. 304 Much as she disliked men, Sister Manhood began to think women got on her tits as badly. 1977 J. WILSON Making Hate xiii. 153 This Sherlock Holmes act of yours gets right on my tits.
d. tits and ass or arse: slang phr. used to denote crude sexuality. Similarly tits and bums. Also transf., a magazine containing photographs of nude women; also called tit mag(azine).
1972 R. A. WILSON Playboy's Bk. Forbidden Words 288 The late Lenny Bruce once suggested that ‘Tits and Ass’ would be the most accurate advertisement for most night-club acts. 1975 New Society 3 July 26/3 His lascivious sisters in the tit mags who part their legs and leer. 1975 Wentworth & Flexner's Dict. Amer. Slang Suppl. 750/1 Tits and ass [taboo] adj., of, being, or pertaining to commercial photographs of nude young women. 1976 N. THORNBURG Cutter & Bone i. 24 A tits-and-ass independent, you might call him. 1977 D. FRANCIS Risk xii. 150 On Wednesday, paragraphs in all the dailies... ‘Fun Jock Twice Removed?’ from a tits and bums. 1977 Zigzag Apr. 34/1 Not unless you look at some jerk-off magazine, a tit-and-ass magazine disguised as some junior hippy kind of thing. 1978 K. AMIS Jake's Thing (1979) v. 49 A keen buyer of tit-magazines. 1978 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 4 Nov. 13/2 Victor Matthews, chairman of Express Newspapers..put his people to work on plans for a new tabloid ‘with plenty of tits and bums’. 1980 in S. Terkel Amer. Dreams 1 There are certain images that come to mind when people talk about beauty queens. It's mostly what's known as t and a, tits and arse. No talent. 1982 Sunday Times 2 Sept. 29/1 Ugly George, America's prime TV porn artist (who invites women to undress for his video camera), with his ‘tit n' ass’ cable channel.
e. arse over tit: see ARSE n. 1b.
2. = TEAT 2; spec. a push-button, esp. one used to fire a gun or release a bomb. orig. Forces' slang.
1942 J. GLEED Arise to Conquer iv. 30 Pull the tit. [Note] This is the emergency control which, by driving the supercharger at its very maximum pace, gives the aeroplane considerable extra speed. 1943 ‘T. DUDLEY-GORDON’ Coastal Command at War xvii. 165 It was time to release the depth-charges... I pressed the tit and that was the last I saw of it [sc. the bomb] for a bit. 1972 A. PRICE Colonel Butler's Wolf xii. 135 They've built this mock-up in the Museum... You press the tit, and the lights go out. 1976 ‘J. ROSS’ I know what it's like to Die xxi. 136 He pressed the tit of the bell push and she opened the door.

tit, n.7 slang.
[Of uncertain origin: perh. f. TIT n.6; cf. TIT n.3, TWIT n.1 2b.]
A foolish or ineffectual person, a nincompoop.

1947 Landfall (N.Z.) Dec. 290 Why didn't Lachlan go, the silly tit? 1965 M. FRAYN Tin Men (1966) xv. 69 ‘Who are all these people?’ they shouted at one another. ‘All which people?’ ‘All these tits in tweed sports jackets.’ Ibid. 70 ‘Peculiar friends he has.’ ‘Tits, a lot of them.’ 1968 Listener 19 Sept. 370/2, I don't think much of this little tit Hitler, do you, ducky? 1978 S. WILSON Dealer's Move vii. 122 We always took a gun, and it kept me quite alert, not wishing to make a tit of myself in front of the laird.

tit, adj. Obs. exc. dial.
Editors suggest, in quot. c 1400, ‘Dear, loved’. In mod. dial. Fond: cf. TID a., TIT-BIT.
c1400 Destr. Troy 7106 en vnhappely hys hest he hastid to do, at angart hym after angardly sore, Turnyt hym to tene & all the tit Rewme. 1854 A. E. BAKER Northampt. Gloss. s.v., When a person is particularly attentive to, or indulgent to another, it is said, ‘He is very tit of her’.

tit, v.1 dial. (chiefly Sc.)

Also 4-5 tyt, 4-6 titte; pa. tense 4 tite, (tyd), 4-5 tit, titt, tyt, 5 tyte, 7- titted (9 -et); pa. pple. 4 tytted, 5 tyt, tytt, 6-7 tit, 7- titted. [Etymology obscure: goes with TIT n.1; see Note below.]

trans. To pull forcibly, to tug; to snatch. Also intr. to pull at.

13.. Cursor M. 15303 (Cott.) His fote ful tite he til him tite [Gött. titt], Him schamed it was well sene. Ibid. 15837 (Gött.) And als ai fra e erd him titt [Trin. pulde] His bodi was all stund. 1375 BARBOUR Bruce v. 603 He tit the bow out of his hand. c1470 HENRY Wallace VI. 143 Ane maid a scrip, and tyt at his lang suorde; ‘Hald still thi hand’, quod he, ‘and spek thi word’. c1470 HENRYSON Mor. Fab. IX. (Wolf & Fox) xxiv, The wecht thairof neir tit my tuskis out. 1873 J. OGG Willie Waly, etc. 115 Hoo angry he was when ye tittet his tails. 1896 BARRIE Tommy xxiv. 281 She realised that Miss Kitty was titting at her dress.

b. To pull up, esp. in a halter; hence, to hang. Obs.
c1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xl. (Ninian) 983 About his nek ai knyt a rape, & tit hym vpe, & lefit hyme are. c1470 HENRY Wallace VII. 212 Be he entrit, hys hed was in the swar; Tytt to the bauk, hangyt to ded rycht thar. 1500-20 DUNBAR Poems xvii. 28 Sum..nevir fra taking can hald thair hand, Quhill he be tit vp to ane tre. 1638 R. BRATHWAIT Barnabees Jrnl. III. (1818) 125 A piper being here committed, Guilty found, condemn'd and titted.

c. To lay hold of forcibly, clutch, seize; ? to pull or drag about. Obs.
c1425 WYNTOUN Cron. IV. vii. 1074 His stewart made on hym a schot And tyt [v.r. claucht] hym dourly be e throte. c1450 HOLLAND Howlat 837 The Golk..tit the Tuchet be the tope, ourtirvit his hed. c1475 Rauf Coilear 123 He tyt the King be the nek. Ibid. 432 For to towsill me or tit me, thocht foull be my clais, Or I be dantit on sic wyse, my lyfe salbe lorne.
[Note. The sense agrees with that of TIGHT v.1, sense 1, but regular Sc. forms of that appear in 14th c. as ticht, tycht, and the disappearance of the ch would be abnormal. It is unlikely that OE. tyhtan, tihtan, should have become *titte in the language of the Danes in England, in accordance with the treatment of ht in ONorse itself.]

tit, v.2 Now dial.
[Goes with TIT n.2: app. an onomatopic match to TAT v.1, the lighter vowel expressing lighter action and sound: cf. tip and tap, pit-a-pat, etc.]

1. trans. and intr. To strike or tap lightly, pat, tip.
(Quot. 1589 appears to be a parody of ‘Come tit me, come tat me, Come throw a kiss at me’, quoted of date 1607 under TAT v.1 This seems to have been a couplet from an old song, current before 1589.)
1589 [? LYLY] Pappe w. Hatchet Bjb, Elderton swore hee had rimes lying a steepe in ale, which shoulde marre all your reasons: there is an olde hacker that shall take order for to print them... The first begins, Come tit me, come tat me, come throw a halter at me. 1607 [see TAT v.1]. 1901 G. DOUGLAS Ho. w. Green Shutters v. 42 He's a brother o'eh..(tit-tit-titting on his brow)oh, just a brother o' Dru'cken Will Goudie.

2. to tit one in the teeth: to cast in one's teeth, upbraid one with (obs.); hence to tit (simply), to twit, upbraid; intr. to scoff or jeer at.
1622 MABBE tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. I. 147 Or that it should be tit in my teeth, that I had beene at the Court, and not seene the King. Ibid. II. 133 They would vpbraid me therewith..; Titting and flouting at me. 1629 J. M. tr. Fonseca's Devout Contempl. 424 Notwithstanding all this Absalon titted him in the teeth, saying, Is this thy loue to thy friend? 1631 Celestina XII. 146 Doe not tit mee in the teeth with these thy idle memorialls of my Mother. 1891 Hartland Gloss., Tit..to twit or teaze. 1904 Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., To tit a person about anything.

tit - obs. 3rd sing. pres. of TIDE v.1; var. TITE adv.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Poopy. I liked mine better

-Colly

 

[Guest]

Poopy. I liked mine better

Sorry, C., but I just couldn't buy the name Titslinger. I always presumed it came from 'teat. Yours is a good story, just be sure the next person you tell it to doesn't have access to a good dictionary.

Perdita

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Sorry, C., but I just couldn't buy the name Titslinger. I always presumed it came from 'teat. Yours is a good story, just be sure the next person you tell it to doesn't have access to a good dictionary.

Perdita

I always preface it with the origins of my information



-Colly

 

[cloudy]

Colly, I've also wondered about the origins of some of the rather unique sayings I've encountered since I've lived in the south.

1. "Like a duck on a junebug." - obviously, ducks will eat junebugs....but who started this?

2. "Drunk as Cooty Brown" - I want to know who the hell Cooty Brown is.

3. When it rains and the suns shining, the "Devil's beating his wife."

There's many, many more.....

 

[Sshafer]

Word or phrase

Heres a phrase that you don't hear to often.
A blind pig finds a acorn now and agin

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I just always assumed 'tit' was a corruption of 'teat'.

If anyone's thinking of hauling out that "for unlawful carnal knowledge" bag o'crap, please don't bother. "Fuck" is a proud, upstanding word with its own noble lineage and doesn't have to play that silly acronym game.

Speaking of selling shit, though. Several years ago the Milwaukee sanitation department had the great idea of bagging up their dried, deoderized sewage sludge and selling it as lawn fertilizer under the name "Mil-Organite".

It worked great, except that everyone who used it got all these tomato plants growing in their lawn. It seems that the sewage treament process didn't kill the seeds, which pass right through people's stomachs undigested. They've fixed the problem since then, and I've used the stuff. But when I water my lawn, I fancy I can smell a vague odor of beer and bratwurst. I also imagine I can hear faint laughter drifting down from the north. I'm sure it's just my imagination.

---Zoot Allors

 

[cantdog]

That's what Perdita's dictionary said. Tit is a corruption of 'teat' and cunt of 'quoint', both earlier forms of the same word. But the "corruption" didn't occur until 1928.

Otto Titsling did indeed invent the modern thing which we would recognize as a bra. Not long after, the word "tit", until then for centuries applied to chits and titmice, become suddenly in use for 'teat'. Both stories are true, and her dictionary confirms it.

cantdog

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Colly, I've also wondered about the origins of some of the rather unique sayings I've encountered since I've lived in the south.

1. "Like a duck on a junebug." - obviously, ducks will eat junebugs....but who started this?

2. "Drunk as Cooty Brown" - I want to know who the hell Cooty Brown is.

3. When it rains and the suns shining, the "Devil's beating his wife."

There's many, many more.....

Like a duck on a June Bug. If you have ever seen june bugs flying on a late evening they are very close to the southern airforce. If you ever see them out by the lake, the ducks go beserk. Like sharks in a feeding frenzy.

-Colly

 

[ABSTRUSE]

When my kids need to research something, I'm sending them to Perdita and Colly. Who says they dont' know shit? and I've heard of Otto Titsling, Bette sang about him in Beaches.

 

[Guest]

When my kids need to research something, I'm sending them to Perdita and Colly.

I think that would be illegal, Abby. Send them to a library. P.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I think that would be illegal, Abby. Send them to a library. P.

I'll put plenty of airholes in the box. My daughter would love to go to the ballet with you and my son would wait on you hand and foot.....lol.