> "Tattle Tale" - I wonder with out going OED - if that is a story told by
> a Tot (a young kid) snitching on an older sibling?? (McClellan on Bush
> et al, as well?)
>
> Stephen V
There's possibly a tattle/prattle (childish talk) link, but "tattle" is
pretty widespread from the 16thC.
The specific sense Stephen is referring to is delt with here:
TATTLE v
2. To utter small talk; to talk idly or lightly; to chatter, babble,
prate; to chat, gossip.
...
3. To talk without reticence so as to reveal secrets or private affairs;
to blab, 'tell tales'. (Now usually with mixture of sense 2.)
1581 [see TATTLING ppl. a.]. 1639 S. DU VERGER tr. Camus' Admir. Events 211
To have exposed her to the tatling of tongues, was a thing he feared like
death. 1652 J. WRIGHT tr. Camus' Nat. Paradox v. 93 People of that Nature
have never a greater itch to bee Tatling, than when they are commanded to be
Silent, and the greater the danger is, the more are they tempted to reveal
it. 1710 PALMER Proverbs 197 When one of the gang tattles, confesses, and
accuses the rest. 1876 HOLLAND Sev. Oaks xx, She had always been one whom
they could have in their families..she never tattled.
R.
