titch
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From the stage name Little Tich; see tich. Attested since the 1880s.[1][2]
Noun edit
titch (plural titches)
- (British, colloquial) A very small person; a small child.
- I ain't afraid of a titch like you.
- 1995, Philip Mitchell, One Moonlit Night, translation of Un Nos Ola Leuad by Caradog Prichard, page 106:
- We called him Titch because he was a tiny little man, and he had a mop of black hair.
Derived terms edit
See also edit
Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English techen, tüchen, variant or dialectal forms of Middle English touchen (“to touch”).[3]
Noun edit
titch (plural titches)
- (colloquial) A small amount of something.
- I'll have just a titch more cake.
- 1988, Howard Lewis Russell, Rush to Nowhere[1], page 148:
- “...and just a titch of my special pepper sauce over these turnip greens, everybody loves turnip greens.”
Verb edit
titch (third-person singular simple present titches, present participle titching, simple past and past participle titched)
- Pronunciation spelling of touch.
- 1865, Nathan Hogg, Poetical Letters[2], page 63:
- Vur Bob eszul wis awful titch'd
An went jist like a hoss a witch'd.
- 1894, Sabine Baring-Gould, Kitty Alone[3], page 120:
- There was some sort of affray between you and Flood. The constables separated you. What led to this?
[…] I titched Noah and Noah titched me and my hat falled off.
Etymology 3 edit
Variant or colloquial pronunciation of teach.
Verb edit
titch (third-person singular simple present titches, present participle titching, simple past and past participle titched)
- Pronunciation spelling of teach.
- 1888, George Washington Cable, Bonaventure[4], page 114:
- “yass, dass all right: but how we know you titch English? Nobody can’t tell you titchin’ him right or no.”
References edit
- ^ Colin McIntosh, editor (2013), “titch”, in Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 4th edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, retrieved 12 June 2018, reproduced in the Cambridge English Dictionary website, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ “titch, n.1.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, January 2018.
- ^ “titch, n.2.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2013.
Scots edit
Etymology edit
From Old Scots tuich or twych, from Old French tochier.
Verb edit
titch (third-person singular simple present titches, present participle titchin, simple past titched, past participle titched)
- Archaic spelling of touch.
- 1845, T. Denham, Poems and Snatches of Prose[5], page 145:
- Wud ye titch the bell? Gin I binna dry, an my tongue a’ san’paper, I’m a leear.
- Would you touch the bell? If it is not the case that I am dry, my tongue like sandpaper, then I’m a liar.
- 1983, William Lorimer, transl., The New Testament in Scots, Edinburgh: Canongate, published 2001, →ISBN, →OCLC, Luke 8:43-44, page 119:
- Jesus wis gaein alang wi the thrang ’maist birzin the breith out o him, wan a wuman at hed haen a rin a bluid for twal year, at nae-ane docht redd her o, cam up ahent him an titched the rund o his coat; an immedentlie the rin o bluid devauled.
- Jesus was among the throng, which nearly pushed the breath from him, when a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, such that no one could heal her, came before him and touched the edge of his cloak; and immediately the bleeding stopped.
Noun edit
titch (plural titches)
- Archaic spelling of touch.
- 1895, Ian Maclaren, A Doctor of the Old School, page 175:
- He hed juist ae faut, tae ma thinkin’, for a’ never jidged the waur o’ him for his titch of rochness—guid trees hae gnarled bark—but he thotched ower little o’ himsel’.
- He had but one fault to my mind, for I never judged him badly for a touch of roughness—good trees have coarse bark—but he thought too little of himself.
References edit
- “touch” in Dictionary of the Scots Language, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh, retrieved 12 June 2018.
Yola edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English tiche, tik-, from Old English tiċċen, from Proto-West Germanic *tikkīn.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
titch
References edit
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 72