tit

Meanings

Noun

• A mammary gland, teat.
• A woman's breast.
• An idiot; a fool.
• A police officer; a "tithead".
• A light blow or hit (now usually in the phrase tit for tat).
• A chickadee; a small passerine bird of the genus Parus or the family Paridae, common in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Any of various other small passerine birds.
• A small horse; a nag.
• A young girl, later especially a minx, hussy.
• A morsel; a bit.

Verb

• To strike lightly, tap, pat.
• To taunt, to reproach.

Origin

• From Middle English tit, titte, tette, from Old English tit, titt, from Proto-Germanic *titt-, of expressive origin.
• Perhaps related to an original meaning “to suck”; compare Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)-. teat, which was borrowed from Old French.
• Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tit, Dutch tiet, dialectal Dutch tet, German Zitze, Titte, Hunsrik Ditz, Yiddish ציצע.
• Perhaps imitative of light tap. Compare earlier tip for tap, from tip + tap; compare also dialectal tint for tant.
• Probably of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; found earliest in titling and titmouse; compare Faroese títlingur, dialectal Norwegian titling, which could ultimately be from a base alluding to diminutive size; compare the first element of titbit.