释义 |
ditto, n.|ˈdɪtəʊ| [a. It. ditto (Florio), detto said, spoken, aforesaid (:—L. dictus, -um). Used in It. with a n. like ‘said’ in Eng.: (il) detto libro ‘(the) said book’; also, absolutely, to avoid repetition of the name of a month, thus (Vocab. Della Crusca) ‘Sotto li 22 di dicembre mi fu significato..che per li 26 detto..io dovessi’ etc. (on the 22nd December it was signified to me..that by the 26th aforesaid (ditto)..I should have, etc.). This was the original sense in which the word was adopted in English, where it has been transferred to other uses, quite unknown to Italian.] †1. In or of the month already named; said month. Obs.
1625Purchas Pilgrims x. ix. §4 The eight and twentieth ditto, I went.. to the Generals Tent. 1677Henchman in W. Hubbard Narrative (1865) I. 237 They, 27 ditto, brought in two Squaws, a Boy and a Girl. [By ditto is meant June, the date June 30 having just been mentioned.] 2. By extension: The aforesaid, the same; used, in accounts and lists (where also abbreviated do, do., or expressed by two dots or commas, or a dash) to avoid repetition of a word or phrase appearing above; hence in commercial, office, and colloquial language.
1678Phillips, Ditto (Italian, said) [1706 adds the aforesaid or the same] a word used much in Merchants Accompts, and relation of Foreign news; and signifieth the same place [ed. 1696the same Commodity or Place] with that immediately beforementioned. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull iv. ii, To Esquire South's accompt for post Terminums To ditto for Non est factums. 1752J. Louthian Form of Process (ed. 2) 261 To the Clerk for every Petition or Answer 0 12 0 To ditto for Letters of Intimation or Liberation..0 18 0. 1759Verral Cookery 105 (Stanf.) Parsley roots, and leaves of ditto. 1776G. Semple Building in water 67 C. Thorough Foundation of Masonry..D. Low-water mark (three Feet above ditto Foundation). 1814P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 116 Buonaparte's crown..ditto of Charlemagne. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge lii, Came in yesterday morning rather the worse for liquor, and was..ditto last night. 1878Lloyd's Weekly 19 May 5/2 (Stanf.) Mrs. Brown (who is also possessed of ditto ditto ditto). b. to say ditto to: to acquiesce in or express agreement with what has been said by (another); to endorse the statements or conclusions of.
1775in Prior Life of Burke (1825) I. 284 His brother candidate Mr. Cruger, a merchant..at the conclusion of one of Mr. Burke's eloquent harangues, finding..nothing to add..exclaimed..in the language of the counting-house, ‘I say ditto to Mr. Burke’. 18..W. E. Norris (Dixon), His wife's convictions resembled those of the wise and unassuming politician who was content to say ditto to Mr. Burke. 1894Mrs. H. Ward Marcella II. 8 Two people who are going to be married ought to say ditto to each other in everything. 3. Hence as n. a. A duplicate or copy; an exact resemblance; a similar thing.
1776J. Q. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 209 Canteens, camp kettles, blankets, tents, shoes, hose, arms, flints, and other dittoes. 1818Lady Morgan Fl. Macarthy (1819) III. i. 67 (Stanf.) Judge Aubrey, just the ditto of herself. 1880Mrs. Parr Adam & Eve xii. 173 Aunt and uncle and my mother..think his ditto was never made. 1885L. Oliphant Haifa (1887) 236 The upper fragment..the ditto of which is to be found at Irbid. b. Cloth of the same material; chiefly plural, in suit of dittos: a suit of clothes of the same material and colour throughout.
1755Connoisseur (1774) III. No. 77 ⁋3 A snuff-coloured suit of ditto with bolus buttons. 1787Microcosm (1793) II. No. 29 ⁋16 To..rescue a suit of Dittos from revilings. 1817W. Beloe Sexagenarian (1818) 52 His suit of clothes was made of what the young men of that day called Ditto. 1834Southey Doctor II. lvi. 191 A sober suit of brown or snuff-coloured dittos such as beseemed his profession. 1883Payn Thicker than Water ix, He was never seen in dittos even in September. c. A succession of the same thing; a repetition.
1887Cleland True to a Type I. 112 Picnics..form an ever-recurring ditto. 4. attrib. and Comb., as ditto-suit; ditto-saying adj.
1892Pall Mall G. 5 May 7/1 Knots..that cannot be untied by loud banality or ditto-saying Gladstonianism. 1893Daily News 5 Apr. 7/1 No change is recorded in ditto suits. ¶ For ditty n. 3.
a1679T. Goodwin Object. Justif. Faith i. ix. Wks. 1697 IV. 49 The declared Ditto of his Song. Hence ˈditto v., (a) to produce a ‘ditto’ or duplicate of; to match; (b) to say or do the same as another person; to agree; ˈdittoism, ˈdittoship, exact repetition or reproduction; sameness.
1837–40Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 162 Where will you ditto our fall? It whips English weather by a long chalk. 1869Bushnell Wom. Suffrage vii. 16 When a woman has set herself up for a practical dittoship with men. 1884A. A. Putnam 10 Years Police Judge vii. 42 The wear and tedium of court-house dittoism. 1890Army and Navy Gaz. 4 Jan., ‘Dittoing’ the ships of other powers. Ibid., What is the Dupuy de Lôme to be ‘dittoed’ with? 1894H. H. Gardener Unofficial Patriot 299 They are sulking in their tents and we are dittoing in ours. 1901Westm. Gaz. 22 Mar. 2/1 No, Mr. Balfour knew nothing of Lord Lansdowne's communication. ‘Nor I,’ dittoed Lord Cranborne. 1922Joyce Ulysses 621 Quite so, Mr Bloom dittoed.
Add:[3.] d. With cap. initial. A proprietary name in the U.S. for a kind of duplicating machine that reproduces copies from a master.
1919Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 1 July 149/2 Duplicator Manufacturing Company, Chicago, Ill... Ditto... Claims use since Dec. 16, 1918. 1936Ibid. 22 Dec. 781/2 Ditto, Incorporated, Chicago, Ill...Ditto... For electrically operated duplicating machines. 1967Karch & Buber Offset Processes 536 Ditto, a small offset press; a duplicator. 1971Sci. Amer. May 63/1 (Advt.), The typical office fairly bulges with typewriters, copiers, dictating machines, dittos—everything to record and circulate the printed word. e. A ditto mark (sense *4 below).
1933[see ditto mark, sense *4 below]. [4.] ditto mark, a symbol ({ditto}) representing the word ‘ditto’, placed under the word or number to be repeated.
1879Harvard Lampoon VIII. 134/1 One town clerk..was unfortunate enough to show off his knowledge of the *ditto-mark ({ditto}), which means, as our readers doubtless know, ‘the same’, when placed underneath a word or number. 1933H. Allen Anthony Adverse I. ii. xiv. 195 There now unrolled about a foot of paper with ditto marks under ‘item’ and a long line opposite each ditto. ditto v.: (c) N. Amer., to copy (a document) by means of a Ditto machine; ˈdittoed ppl. a., reproduced by a Ditto machine.
1955Biometrics XI. 42 Tukey, J. W., ‘The Problem of Multiple Comparisons’, unpublished dittoed notes, Princeton University, 396 pp., 1953. 1969Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics XV. 38 An extensive ‘underground’ literature—papers which are privately circulated in dittoed form and read and criticized before they appear in journals. 1980Maledicta III. ii. 252 Prewitt & Schaeffer dittoed a 9-page Contalk, An Abridged Lexicon and Notes on Contemporary Prison Slang (1962) and Tamony kindly provided me with all the card-file information in his dittoed version (1963). |