Online Etymology Dictionary

Timothy: masc. proper name, from Fr. Timothée, from L. Timotheus, from Gk. Timotheos, lit. "honoring God," from time "honor, respect" + theos "god." With lower-case t-, first recorded 1747 as short for timothy grass (1736), Amer.Eng. name for "meadow cat's-tail grass" (Phleum pratense), a native British grass introduced to the Amer. colonies and cultivated there from c.1720, said to be so called for Timothy Hanson, who was first to cultivate it as an agricultural plant.
timpani: 1876, plural of timpano (1740), from It. timpani "drums," from L. tympanum "drum" (see tympanum).
tin: O.E. tin, from P.Gmc. *tinom (cf. M.Du., Du. tin, O.H.G. zin, Ger. Zinn, O.N. tin), of unknown origin, not found outside Gmc. Tinny is first recorded 1552; used figuratively (of sounds, etc.) since 1877; tin-type in photography is from 1864. Tin ear "lack of musical discernment" is from 1909. Tin Lizzie "early Ford, especially a Model T," first recorded 1915. Tinfoil is attested from 1467; tinhorn "petty but flashy" is 1857, originally of low-class gamblers, from the tin cans they used for shaking dice.
Tin Pan Alley: "hit song writing business," 1908, from tin pan, slang for "a decrepit piano" (1882). The original one was 28th Street in New York City, home to many music publishing houses.
tincture (n.): 1400, from L. tinctura "act of dyeing or tingeing," from tinctus "dye," pp. of tingere "to tinge, dye, moisten, soak," from PIE base *teng- "to soak" (cf. O.H.G. dunkon "to soak," Gk. tengein "to moisten"). Meaning "solution of medicine in a mixture of alcohol" is first recorded 1646. The verb is recorded from 1616.
tinder: "dry, inflammable substance," O.E. tynder, related to tendan "to kindle," from P.Gmc. *tund- "ignite, kindle" (cf. Goth. tandjan, Swed. tända, Ger. zünden). Tinderbox "box in which tinder and flint are kept" is recorded from 1530; fig. sense of " 'inflammable' person or thing" is attested from 1598.
tine: O.E. tind, a general Gmc. word (cf. O.H.G. zint "sharp point, spike," O.N. tindr "tine, point, top, summit," Ger. Zinne "pinnacle"), of unknown origin.
tinge (v.): 1471, "to dye, color slightly," from L. tingere "to dye, color," originally "to moisten" (see tincture). The noun is first recorded 1752.
tingle (v.): 1388, "to have a ringing sensation when hearing something," later "to have a stinging or thrilling feeling," variation of tinkelen (see tinkle). The noun is first recorded 1700.
tinker: "mender of kettles, pots, pans, etc.," 1252 (as a surname), of uncertain origin. Some connect the word with the sound made by light hammering on metal. The verb meaning "to keep busy in a useless way" is first found 1658. Tinker's damn "something slight and worthless" is from 1824, preserving tinkers' reputation for free and casual use of profanity.
tinkle: "to make a gentle ringing sound," 1382, possibly a frequentative form of tinken "to ring, jingle," perhaps of imitative origin. Meaning "to urinate" is recorded from 1960, from childish talk.
tinsel: c.1448, "a kind of cloth made with interwoven gold or silver thread," from M.Fr. estincelle "spark, spangle" (see stencil). Meaning "very thin sheets or strips of shiny metal" is recorded from 1593. Fig. sense of "anything showy with little real worth" is from 1660, suggested from at least 1595. First recorded use of Tinseltown for "Hollywood" is from 1975.
tint (n.): "color," 1717, alteration of tinct (c.1600), from L. tinctus "a dyeing," from tingere "to dye" (see tincture); influenced by It. tinta "tint, hue," from L. tinctus. The verb is attested from 1756 (implied in tinted).
tintinnabulation: "the ringing of bells," 1831 (perhaps coined by Poe), from L. tintinnabulum "bell," from tintinnare "to ring, jingle" (reduplicated form of tinnire "to ring," from an imitative base) + instrumental suffix -bulum. Earlier forms in English were tintinnabulary (1787), tintinnabulatory (1827), and tintinnabulum "small bell" (late 14c.).
tiny: c.1400, tyne "very small," perhaps from tine.
tip (v.1): "to slope, overturn," c.1300, possibly from Scand., or a special use of tip (n.). Intransitive sense of "fall over" is recorded from 1530.
tip (n.): "end, point, top," early 13c., from M.L.G. or M.Du. tip "utmost point, extremity, tip" (cf. Ger. zipfel, a dim. formation); perhaps cognate with O.E. tæppa "stopper" (see tap (n.)), from P.Gmc. *tupp- "upper extremity." Tip-toe (n.) is late 14c.; tip-top is from 1702.
tip (v.2): "give a small present of money to," 1610, "to give, hand, pass," originally thieves' cant, perhaps from tip (v.3) "to tap." The meaning "give a gratuity to" is first attested 1706. The noun in this sense is from 1755; the meaning "piece of confidential information" is from 1845; the verb in this sense is from 1883; tipster first recorded 1862.
tip (v.3): "light, sharp blow or tap," c.1466, possibly from Low Ger. tippen "to poke, touch lightly," related to M.L.G. tip "end, point," and thus connected to tip (n.); or else connected with tap (v.) "to strike lightly." The noun in this sense is attested from 1567.
tipple: 1531, "sell alcoholic liquor by retail," of unknown origin, possibly from a Scand. source (e.g. Norw. dial. tipla "to drink slowly or in small quantities"). Meaning "drink (alcoholic beverage) too much" is first attested 1560. Tippler "seller of alcoholic liquors" is from 1396; in the sense of "habitual drinker" it dates from 1580.
tipstaff: 1540s, "tipped staff" (truncheon with a tip or cap of metal) carried as an emblem of office, from tip (n.) + staff. As the name of an official who carries one (esp. a sheriff's officer, bailiff, constable, court crier, etc.) it is recorded from 1560s.
tipsy: 1577, from tip (v.1); later associated with tipple. Tipsy-cake (1806) was cake saturated with wine or liquor.
tirade: 1801, "a 'volley of words,' " from Fr. tirade "speech, volley, shot, continuation, drawing out" (16c.), from tirer "draw out, endure, suffer," or the Fr. word is perhaps from cognate It. tirata "a volley," from pp. of tirare "to draw." The whole Romanic word group is of uncertain origin; some think it is a shortening of the source of O.Fr. martirer "endure martyrdom" (see martyr).
tire (v.): "to weary," also "to become weary," O.E. teorian (Kentish tiorian), of unknown origin, not found outside English. Tiresome "tedious" is first recorded c.1500.
tire (n.): late 15c., "iron rim of a carriage wheel," probably from tire "equipment, dress, covering" (c.1300), an aphetic form of attire. The notion is of the tire as the dressing of the wheel. The original spelling was tyre, which had shifted to tire in 17c.-18c., but since early 19c. tyre has been revived in Great Britain and become standard there. Rubber ones, for bicycles (later automobiles) are from 1870s.
tired: "exhausted, fatigued, weary," early 15c., pp. adj. from tire (v.).
Tironian: of or pertaining to Marcus Tullius Tiro, Cicero's scribe and namesake, 1828, esp. in ref. to the Tironian Notes (L. notæ Tironianæ), a system of shorthand said to have been invented by him (see ampersand).
tissue: mid-14c., "band or belt of rich material," from O.Fr. tissu "a ribbon, headband, belt of woven material" (c.1200), noun use of tissu "woven, interlaced," pp. of tistre "to weave," from L. texere "weave" (see texture). The biological sense is first recorded 1831, from Fr., introduced c.1800 by Fr. anatomist Marie-François-Xavier Bichal (1771-1802). Tissue-paper is from 1777, supposedly so called because it was made to be placed between tissues to protect them. Meaning "piece of absorbent paper used as a handkerchief" is from 1929.
tit (1): "breast," O.E. titt (a variant of teat). But the modern slang tits (pl.), attested from 1928, seems to be a recent reinvention from teat, used without awareness that it is a throwback to the original form. Titty, however, is on record from 1746 as "a dial. and nursery dim. of teat."
tit (2): 1548, "any small animal or object" (as in compound forms such as titmouse, tomtit, etc.); also used of small horses. Similar words in related senses are found in Scand. (cf. Icel. tittr, Norw. tita "a little bird"), but the connection and origin are obscure; perhaps, as OED suggests, the word is merely suggestive of something small. Used figuratively of persons after 1734, but earlier for "a girl or young woman," usually in deprecatory sense of "a hussy, minx" (1599). Tit for tat (1556) is possibly an alteration of tip for tap "blow for blow," from tip (v.3) "tap" + tap "touch lightly."
titan: 1412, from L. Titan, from Gk. Titan, member of a mythological race of giants who attempted to scale heaven by piling Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa but were overthrown by Zeus and the gods. They descended from Titan, elder brother of Kronos. Perhaps from tito "sun, day," which is probably a loan-word from a language of Asia Minor. Sense of "person or thing of enormous size" first recorded 1828. Applied to planet Saturn's largest satellite in 1868; it was discovered 1655 by Du. astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who named it Saturni Luna "moon of Saturn.". Titanic "gigantic, colossal" is first recorded 1709.
titanium: 1796, from Mod.L., named by Klaproth, 1795, from L. Titan (see titan). He had previously named uranium.
tithe: O.E. teogoþa (Anglian), teoþa (W.Saxon) "tenth," from P.Gmc. *tegunthon, *tekhunthon. Retained in ecclesiastical sense while the form was replaced in ordinal use by tenth (influenced by ten). The verb is O.E. teoþian.
titillation: early 15c., "pleasing excitement," from L. titillationem (nom. titillatio) "a tickling," noun of action from titillare "to tickle," imitative of giggling.
title: c.1300, "inscription, heading," from O.Fr. title (12c.), and in part from O.E. titul, both from L. titulus "inscription, heading," of unknown origin. Meaning "name of a book, play, etc." first recorded mid-14c. The sense of "name showing a person's rank" is first attested 1580s. The verb meaning "to furnish with a title" is attested from late 14c.
titmouse: "small, active bird," early 14c., titmose, from tit (2) (expressing something small) + O.E. mase "titmouse," from P.Gmc. *maison (cf. Du. mees, Ger. meise), from adj. *maisa- "little, tiny." Spelling infl. 16c. by unrelated mouse.
titration: 1864, from Fr. titrer, from titre "standard, title" (see title), also "fineness of alloyed gold;" in chemistry, the establishment of a standard strength or degree of concentration of a solution.
titter (v.): 1619, "giggle in a suppressed or covert way," probably of imitative origin. The noun is first recorded 1728.
tittle: 1382, "small stroke or point in writing," representing L. apex in L.L. sense of "accent mark over a vowel," borrowed (perhaps by infl. of Prov. titule "the dot over -i-") from L. titulus "inscription, heading."
titular: 1591, perhaps by infl. of M.Fr. titulaire, from L. titulus (see title).
tizzy: 1935, Amer.Eng. colloquial, of uncertain origin, perhaps related to slang tizzy "sixpence piece" (1804), a corruption of tester, a name for the coin (see tester (2)).
Tlingit: Indian group in Alaska and Canada, the people's word for themselves, lit. "human beings."
tmesis: 1577, from Gk. tmesis "a cutting," related to temnein "to cut," tome "a cutting" (see tome). The separation of the elements of a compound word by the interposition of another word or words (e.g. a whole nother).
TNT: 1915, abbreviation of trinitrotoluene (1908).
to: O.E. to "in the direction of, for the purpose of, furthermore," from W.Gmc. *to (cf. O.S., O.Fris. to, Du. too, O.H.G. zuo, Ger. zu "to"), from PIE pronomial base *do- "to, toward, upward" (cf. L. donec "as long as," O.C.S. do "as far as, to," Gk. suffix -de "to, toward," O.Ir. do, Lith. da-). In O.E., the preposition (go to town) leveled with the adverb (the door slammed to) except where the adverb retained its stress (tired and hungry too); there it came to be written with -oo (see too). The nearly universal use of to with infinitives (to sleep, to dream, etc.) arose in M.E. out of the O.E. dative use of to, and helped drive out the O.E. inflectional endings (though in this use to itself is a mere sign, without meaning). Commonly used as a prefix in M.E. (to-hear "listen to," etc.), but few of these survive (to-do, together, and time references like today, tonight, tomorrow -- Chaucer also has to-yeere). To and fro "side to side" is attested from 1340. Phrase what's it to you "how does that concern you?" goes back a long way:
"Huæd is ðec ðæs?"
[John xxi.22, in Lindisfarne Gospel, c.950]
to-: particle expressing separation, from W.Gmc. *ti- (cf. O.Fris. ti-, O.H.G. zi-, Ger. zer-), from P.Gmc. *tiz-, cognate with L. dis-. Some 125 compound verbs with this element are recorded in O.E.; they declined rapildy in M.E. and disappeared by c.1500 except as conscious archaisms.
to-do: 1570s, from the verb phrase to do, from O.E. to don "proper or necessary to be done" (see to). Meaning "disturbance, fuss" is first recorded 1827.
toad: O.E. tadige, tadie, of unknown origin and with no known cognates outside Eng. Toadstone "stone or stone-like object, supposedly magical (with healing or protective power) and found in the heads of certain toads," is attested from 1558, transl. Gk. batrakhites, M.L. bufonites; cf. also Fr. crapaudine (13c.), Ger. krötenstein.
toadstool: late 14c., apparently a fanciful name from M.E. tadde "toad" + stole "stool." Toads themselves were regarded as very poisonous, and this word is popularly restricted to inedible or poisonous fungi, as opposed to mushrooms (e.g. toad-cheese, a poisonous fungi).
toady (n.): "servile parasite," 1826, apparently shortened from toad-eater "fawning flatterer" (1742), originally referring to the assistant of a charlatan, who ate a toad (believed to be poisonous) to enable his master to display his skill in expelling the poison (1629). The verb is recorded from 1827.