ditto

      WOTD – 9 June 2007    

      English

      Etymology

      First attested in 1625. From Italian detto, past participle of dire (“to say”), from Latin dīcō (“I say, I speak”).

      Pronunciation

      Noun

      ditto (plural dittos)

      1. That which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise.
        • Charles Dickens
          A spacious table in the centre, and a variety of smaller dittos in the corners.
        • 2008 May 22, “New 'Indiana' film whips up plenty of thrills”:
          The opening shot of "Crystal Skull" shows the playful side of director Steven Spielberg, who seems to have a weak spot for cute animals. See "AI Artificial Intelligence" for Exhibit A. Ditto for executive producer George Lucas. See "Return of the Jedi" for Exhibit B.
        • 2009 July 3, “Andy Murray: easy to admire, but can we learn to love him?”, Times Online:
          He has created for himself a honed, primed-for-victory body and is working hard on a ditto mind.
      2. (informal) A duplicate or copy of a document.
        Please run off twenty-four dittos of this assignment, for my students.
      3. A copy; an imitation.
        • 1991, N. Romano-Benner, “Convoking the muses of Cuenca”, Americas, volume 43, number 1, page 6: 
          "You've got to look good to feel good," she announces, a ditto of television slogans.
        • 2003, “Argenta appears unfazed”, Herald & Review:
          Last year, Argenta-Oreana blanked the Chiefs 23-0 in a second-round game Dee-Mack coach Jim McDonald said was "pretty much a ditto" of what transpired Saturday.
        • 2009, “Brunswick school hopes to be model for uniforms”, Myrtle Beach Sun News:
          The intent of the policy, she said, is "not to put everybody in a ditto environment," where all are expected to look and act exactly like all others.
      4. A symbol, represented by two apostrophes, inverted commas, or quotation marks (" "), when indicating that the item preceding is to be repeated.

      Synonyms

      • (symbol): ditto mark, do (abbreviation)

      Translations

      the aforesaid
      informal: duplicate
      ditto mark
      The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
      Translations to be checked

      Adverb

      ditto (comparative more ditto, superlative most ditto)

      1. As said before, likewise.

      Translations

      likewise — see likewise

      Verb

      ditto (third-person singular simple present dittos, present participle dittoing, simple past and past participle dittoed)

      1. (transitive) To repeat the aforesaid, the earlier action etc.
        • 1989, K. K. N. Kurup, Agrarian struggles in Kerala
          The Communists believed that Prakasam, the Prime Minister, never tried to check the bureaucracy but dittoed every action of the corrupt officials and police.

      Synonyms

      Translations

      (transitive) To repeat the aforesaid, the earlier action etc
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      Last modified on 9 June 2013, at 23:21