英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

titration (n.)[titration 词源字典]: in chemistry, "the establishment of a standard strength or degree of concentration of a solution," 1864, noun of action from titrate (v.).[titration etymology, titration origin, 英语词源]
titter (v.): 1610s, "giggle in a suppressed or nervous way," probably of imitative origin. Related: Tittered; tittering. The noun is first recorded 1728.
titties (n.): 1746, tetties (plural), a nursery or dialect diminutive variant of teats (see teat).
Margery. Come, be quite;--be quite, es zey, a grabbling o' wone's Tetties.---Es wont ha' ma Tetties a grabbled zo ; ner es wont be mullad and foulad.---Stand azide; come, gi' o'er. ["Exmoor Courtship, or, A Suitoring Discourse, in the Devonshire Dialect and Mode, near the forest of Exmoor," 1746]
tittle (n.): late 14c., "small stroke or point in writing" (Wyclif, in Matt. v:18), translating Latin apex in Late Latin sense of "accent mark over a vowel," which itself translates Greek keraia (literally "a little horn"), used by the Greek grammarians of the accents and diacritical points, in this case a Biblical translation of Hebrew qots, literally "thorn, prick," used of the little lines and projections by which the Hebrew letters of similar form differ from one another.

Wyclif's word is borrowed from a specialized sense of Latin titulus (see title (n.)), which was used in Medieval Latin (and in Middle English and Old French) to indicate "a stroke over an abridged word to indicate letters missing" (and compare Provençal titule "the dot over -i-").
"As apex was used by the Latin grammarians for the accent or mark over a long vowel, titulus and apex became to some extent synonymous; hence Wyclif's use of titil, titel to render L. apex" [OED]
Compare tilde, which is the Spanish form of the same word.
titular (adj.): 1590s, from or based on Middle French titulaire (16c.), from Latin titulus (see title) + -ar. Related: Titulary.
tix (n.): short for tickets, by 1944 in "Billboard" headlines.
tizzy (n.): 1922, American English colloquial, of uncertain origin, perhaps related to slang tizzy "sixpence piece" (1804), a corruption of tester, a name for the coin (see tester (n.2)).
TLC (n.): by 1953 as an abbreviation of tender loving care.
Tlingit (n.): Indian group in southwestern Alaska and adjacent parts of Canada, 1865, the people's word for themselves, literally "human beings."
tmesis (n.): 1580s, from Greek 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 (such as a whole nother).
TNT: 1915, abbreviation of trinitrotoluene (1908), from trinitro- indicating three nitro- groups in place of three hydrogen atoms in a compound, + toluene.
to (prep.): Old English to "in the direction of, for the purpose of, furthermore," from West Germanic *to (cognates: Old Saxon and Old Frisian to, Dutch too, Old High German zuo, German zu "to"), from PIE pronominal base *do- "to, toward, upward" (cognates: Latin donec "as long as," Old Church Slavonic do "as far as, to," Greek suffix -de "to, toward," Old Irish do, Lithuanian da-), from demonstrative *de-.

Not found in Scandinavian, where the equivalent of till (prep.) is used. In Old English, 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 Middle English out of the Old English dative use of to, and it helped drive out the Old English inflectional endings (though in this use to itself is a mere sign, without meaning).

Commonly used as a prefix in Middle English (to-hear "listen to," etc.), but few of these survive (to-do, together, and time references such as today, tonight, tomorrow -- Chaucer also has to-yeere). To and fro "side to side" is attested from mid-14c. Phrase what's it to you "how does that concern you?" (1819) is a modern form of an old question:
Huæd is ðec ðæs?
[John xxi:22, in Lindisfarne Gospel, c.950]
to-: particle expressing separation, putting asunder, from West Germanic *ti- (cognates: Old Frisian ti-, Old High German zi-, German zer-), from Proto-Germanic *tiz-, cognate with Latin-derived dis-. According to OED, some 125 compound verbs with this element are recorded in Old English; their number declined rapidly in Middle English and disappeared by c. 1500 except as conscious archaisms (such as to-shiver "break to pieces;" all to-brast).
to-do (n.): 1570s, from the verb phrase to do, from Old English to don "proper or necessary to be done" (see to + do). Meaning "disturbance, fuss" is first recorded 1827. Similar formation in French affaire, from à "to" + faire "do."
toad (n.): c. 1300, from late Old English tadige, tadie, of unknown origin and according to OED with no known cognates outside English. Applied to loathsome persons from 1560s. Toad-strangler "heavy rain" is from 1919, U.S. Southern dialectal.
toadstone (n.): "stone or stone-like object, supposedly magical (with healing or protective power) and found in the heads of certain toads," 1550s, from toad + stone (n.). Translating Greek batrakhites, Medieval Latin bufonites; compare also French crapaudine (13c.), German krötenstein.
The Crapadine or Toadstone, we speak of before, you shall prove to be a true one, if the Toad lift himself so up against it, when it is shew'd or held to him, as if he would come at it, and leap to catch it away: he doth so much envy that Man should have that stone. ["Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art & Nature," 1661]
toadstool (n.): late 14c., apparently just what it looks like: a fanciful name from Middle English tadde "toad" (see toad) + stole "stool" (see stool). Toads themselves were regarded as highly poisonous, and this word is "popularly restricted to poisonous or inedible fungi, as distinct from edible "mushrooms" [OED]. Compare toad-cheese, a poisonous fungi; toad's meat (1886), a "rustic" term for toadstool.
toady (n.): "servile parasite," 1826, apparently shortened from toad-eater "fawning flatterer" (1742), originally (1620s) "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. The verb is recorded from 1827. Related: Toadied; toadying.
toast (v.1): "to brown with heat," late 14c., from Old French toster "to toast, to grill, roast, burn" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *tostare (source of Italian tostare, Spanish tostar), frequentative of Latin torrere (past participle tostus) "to parch" (see terrain). Related: Toasted; toasting.
toast (v.2): "to propose or drink a toast," 1700, from toast (n.1). This probably is the source of the Jamaican and U.S. black word meaning "extemporaneous narrative poem or rap" (1962). Related: Toasted; toasting.