combining form meaning "ten more than," from Old English -tene, -tiene, from Proto-Germanic *tekhuniz (cf. Old Saxon -tein, Dutch -tien, Old High German -zehan, German -zehn, Gothic -taihun), an inflected form of the root of ten; cognate with Latin -decim (cf. Italian -dici, Spanish -ce, French -ze). The combining form of ordinal numbers, -teenth, developed from Old English -teoða, -teoðe (West Saxon), teogoða (Anglian) "tenth."
word-forming element meaning "food, nourishment," from Greek trophe "food, nourishment," related to trephein "make thrive, nourish, rear; to make solid, congeal, thicken."
syllable formed when the word-forming element -ude, forming abstract nouns from adjectives and participles, is fixed to a base or to another suffix ending in -t or -te; from French -ude, from Latin -udo (genitive -udinis). As a word in its own right, teenager slang shortening of attitude, it dates from 1970s.
suffix representing "ten" in cardinal numbers (sixty, seventy, etc.), from Old English -tig, from a Germanic root (cf. Dutch -tig, Old Frisian -tich, Old Norse -tigr, Old High German -zig, -zug, German -zig) that existed as a distinct word in Gothic tigjus, Old Norse tigir "tens, decades."
English, like many other Germanic languages, retains traces of a base-12 number system. The most obvious instance is eleven and twelve which ought to be the first two numbers of the "teens" series. Their Old English forms, enleofan and twel(eo)f(an), are more transparent: "leave one" and "leave two."
Old English also had hund endleofantig for "110" and hund twelftig for "120." One hundred was hund teantig. The -tig formation ran through 12 cycles, and could have bequeathed us numbers *eleventy ("110") and *twelfty ("120") had it endured, but already during the Anglo-Saxon period it was being obscured.
Old Norse used hundrað for "120" and þusend for "1,200." Tvauhundrað was "240" and þriuhundrað was "360." Older Germanic legal texts distinguished a "common hundred" (100) from a "great hundred" (120). This duodecimal system, according to one authority, is "perhaps due to contact with Babylonia."
suffix used in forming abstract nouns from adjectives (safety, surety, etc.), Middle English -te, from Old French -te, from Latin -tatem (-tas, genitive -tatis), cognate with Greek -tes, Sanskrit -tati-.
to cross one's T's (and dot one's i's) "to be exact" is attested from 1849. Phrase to a T "exactly" is recorded from 1690s, though the exact signification is uncertain, despite much speculation. The measuring tool called a T-square is recorded by that name from 1785.
1972, short for tits and ass (a phrase attributed to Lenny Bruce), in reference to U.S. mass media; earlier it was medical shorthand for "tonsils and adenoids" (1942).
type of steak, 1916, so called from the T-shaped bone that runs through it. The verb meaning "to strike (another car, bus, etc.) from the side" is by 1970, from adjectival use in reference to crashes, attested from 1952.
"small flap," c.1600, possibly a dialectal word, of uncertain origin. Often interchangeable with tag (n.1). Cf. also Middle English tab "strap or string" (mid-15c.), Norwegian dialectal tave "piece of cloth, rag."
"account, bill, check," 1888, American English colloquial, probably a shortened form of tabulation or of tablet in the sense of "a sheet for writing on." Figurative phrase keep a tab on is recorded from 1890.
1961, shortened form of tablet (especially one of sugar containing LSD). As an abbreviation of tabloid (newspaper) it is 1990s slang. As a short form of tabulator key of a typewriter (later computer) it is recorded from 1916.
mid-13c., from early Spanish tabardo and Old French tabart (12c.), of unknown origin. Originally a coarse, sleeveless upper garment worn by peasants, later a knight's surcoat (hence the name of the tavern in "Canterbury Tales").
proprietary name of a type of hot sauce, 1876, (the sauce so called from 1650s, originally Tavasco), named for state in Mexico, perhaps because the pepper sauce was first encountered there by U.S. and European travelers. The trademark (by Edward Avery McIlhenny) claims use from c.1870.
1630s, "striped silk taffeta," from French tabis "a rich, watered silk (originally striped)," from Middle French atabis (14c.), from Arabic 'attabiya, from 'Attabiy, a neighborhood of Baghdad where such cloth was first made, named for prince 'Attab of the Omayyad dynasty. Tabby cat, one with a striped coat, is attested from 1690s; shortened form tabby first attested 1774. Sense of "female cat" (1826) may be influenced by the fem. proper name Tabby, a pet form of Tabitha, which was used in late 18c. as slang for "difficult old woman."
mid-13c., "portable sanctuary carried by the Israelites in the wilderness," from Old French tabernacle (12c.), from Latin tabernaculum "tent," especially "a tent of an augur" (for taking observations), diminutive of taberna "hut, cabin, booth" (see tavern). Transferred late 14c. to the Temple in Jerusalem (which continued its function). Sense of "house of worship" first recorded 1690s. The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (mid-October) was observed as a thanksgiving for harvest.
fem. proper name, from Late Latin, from Greek Tabitha, from Aramaic tabhyetha, emphatic of tabhya "gazelle," which is related to Hebrew tzebhi (fem. tzebhiyyah), Arabic zaby.
type of musical notation for lute or stringed instrument, 1570s, from French tablature (1550s), from Latin tabula "table" (see table (n.)); influenced by Italian tavolatura, from tavolare "to board, plank, enclose with boards."
late 12c., "board, slab, plate," from Old French table "board, plank, writing table, picture" (11c.), and late Old English tabele, from West Germanic *tabal (cf. Old High German zabel, German Tafel), both the French and Germanic words from Latin tabula "a board, plank, table," originally "small flat slab or piece" usually for inscriptions or for games, of uncertain origin, related to Umbrian tafle "on the board."
The sense of "piece of furniture with the flat top and legs" first recorded c.1300 (the usual Latin word for this was mensa (see mensa); Old English writers used bord (see board (n.1)). The meaning "arrangement of numbers or other figures for convenience" is recorded from late 14c. (e.g. table of contents, mid-15c.).
Figurative phrase turn the tables (1630s) is from backgammon (in Old and Middle English the game was called tables). Table talk is attested from 1560s, translating Latin colloquia mensalis. To table-hop is first recorded 1956. The adjectival phrase under-the-table "hidden from view" is recorded from 1949; under the table "passed out from excess drinking" is recorded from 1921. Table tennis is recorded from 1887.
in parliamentary sense, 1718, originally "to lay on the (speaker's) table for discussion," from table (n.). But in U.S. political jargon it has chiefly the sense of "to postpone indefinitely" (1866). Related: Tabled; tabling.
1690s, "a picturesque or graphic description or picture," from French tableau "picture, painting," from Old French table "slab, writing tablet" (see table (n.)) + diminutive suffix -eau, from Latin -ellus. Hence tableau-vivant (1817) "person or persons silent and motionless, enacting a well-known scene, incident, painting, etc.," popular 19c. parlor game, literally "living picture."
early 14c., "slab or flat surface for an inscription" (especially the two Mosaic tables of stone), from Old French tablete (13c.), diminutive of table "slab" (see table (n.)). The meaning "lozenge, pill" is first recorded 1580s; that of "pad of writing paper" in 1880.
1884, "small tablet of medicine," trademark name (by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co.) for compressed or concentrated chemicals and drugs, formed from tablet + Greek-derived suffix -oid. By 1898, it was being used figuratively to mean a compressed form or dose of anything, hence tabloid journalism (1901), and newspapers that typified it (1918), so called for having short, condensed news articles and/or for being small in size.
1777 (in Cook's "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean"), "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed," explained in some English sources as being from Tongan (Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark" + bu "especially." But this may be folk etymology, as linguists in the Pacific have reconstructed an irreducable Proto-Polynesian *tapu, from Proto-Oceanic *tabu "sacred, forbidden" (cf. Hawaiian kapu "taboo, prohibition, sacred, holy, consecrated;" Tahitian tapu "restriction, sacred;" Maori tapu "be under ritual restriction, prohibited"). The noun and verb are English innovations first recorded in Cook's book.
"small drum resembling a tamborine," late 13c., from Old French tabour, tabur "drum" (11c.), probably from Persian tabir "drum," but evolution of sense and form are uncertain. Related to tambourine.
1530s, "the mind in its primary state," from Latin tabula rasa, literally "scraped tablet," from which writing has been erased, thus ready to be written on again, from tabula (see table) + rasa, fem. past participle of radere "to scrape away, erase" (see raze). A loan-translation of Aristotle's pinakis agraphos, literally "unwritten tablet" ("De anima," 7.22).