Has this anything to do with "tittle-tattle"?
Roger
I suspect it does, Roger, in that it would work like this: a 'tittle' is a
small thing, whereas 'tattle' as in 'tatler' denotes talk, gossip, etc, so
'tittle-tattle' is a lot of yak about not very much. And of course the words
link in sound.
this is all guesswork on my part, as I feel far too lazy to research it, so
waiting for the Profs.
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Day" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2005 3:09 PM
Subject: Re: For Robin Hamilton (1)
Has this anything to do with "tittle-tattle"?
Roger
On 12/30/05, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks Dave 'tittle'confirmed in my OED also tittling which has a
charm
> P tittling P
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and
> poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Bircumshaw
> Sent: 30 December 2005 14:13
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: For Robin Hamilton (1)
>
> Some disjecta membra that might interest Monsieur Le Rodent:
>
> 1) Daylight robbery. I came across this the other day: one assumes that
the
> phrase means something blatantly obvious and wrong being done in the sight
> others, which is its usage, but its origin is quite different. It comes
from
> the Window Tax in 17th century England, when, of course, people bricked up
> their windows to avoid the financial toll. Hence, it was not 'DAYlight
> robbery', as we say it, but rather: 'daylight: robbery'.
>
> 2) 'ghetto' comes from the Italian for 'foundry'. This was because there
was
> an island foundry in Venice which, in the early 16th century, became the
> first formalised 'ghetto' for Jews. That was the beginning of the utter
> horrors (btw I can't, in this respect, recommend enough the late W.G.
> Sebald's great novel 'Austerlitz')
>
> 3) The word for the little dot over a lower-case i is apparently a
'tittle'.
> I haven't investigated the accuracy of this but I hope it's true.
>
> Best
>
> Dave
>
--
http://www.badstep.net/
http://www.cb1poetry.org.uk/
|