tittle

== English == === Pronunciation === (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈtɪt.əl/ === Etymology 1 === From Middle English tytle, titel, titele, from Anglo-Norman titil, titule and Medieval Latin titulus (“small stroke, diacritical mark, accent”), from Latin titulus (“title”). Doublet of tilde, titer/titre, title, titlo, and titulus. ==== Noun ==== tittle (plural tittles) (typography) Any small dot, stroke, or diacritical mark, especially if part of a letter, or of a letter-like abbreviation; in particular, the dots over the Latin letters i and j. 1590, Bales, The Arte of Brachygraphie (quoted in Daid King's 2001 'The Ciphers of the Monks'): The foure pricks or tittles are these. The first is a full prick or period. The second is a comma or crooked tittle. 1987, Andrea van Arkel-De Leeuw van Weenen, Möðruvallabók, AM 132 Fol: Index and concordance, page xii: (the page calls both "a superscript sign (hooklike)" and also a diacritical abbreviation of "er" (er#Icelandic) "tittles") (by extension) A small, insignificant amount (of something); a modicum or speck. ===== Synonyms ===== See also Thesaurus:modicum. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Related terms ===== ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 2 === From Middle English titillen, tytyllen, perhaps variants of Middle English tutelen (“to whisper, chatter”), from tutel (“mouth”), from Old English *tūtel, *tȳtel, related to Old Frisian tūte (“mouth”). Compare Middle English touten (“to jut out, project, protrude”), Middle English toute (“projection, mound, hill”), Middle Dutch tûte (whence modern Dutch tuit (“spout, nozzle, nose, point, peak, summit”)), Old Norse túta (“a teat-like prominence”), Danish tude (“spout”). ==== Verb ==== tittle (third-person singular simple present tittles, present participle tittling, simple past and past participle tittled) (Scotland) To chatter. ===== Related terms ===== tattle tittle-tattle