| 释义 |
▪ I. tittle, n.|ˈtɪt(ə)l|
Forms: 4 titil, -el, 5 ty-, titylle, -tille, titelle, 5–9 title, 6 tittil, -yl, tytle, tyttle, 6– tittle.
[ME. titel, -il, orig. the same word as title, but with a special sense developed in late L. and Romanic (see below), and retaining the short i of L. titulus. The spelling tittle is found 1535; title is occasional after 1600.
For the mediæval and Romanic senses of L. titulus akin to Eng. tittle, cf. a1286Balbi Catholicon, ‘Titulus etiam dicitur nota quæ causa brevitatis apponitur dictionibus’; also a 800Corpus Chr. L. & Ags. Gloss. (Hessels 1890) E 242 Epigramma, titulum; 243 Epigramma, abreuiata scriptura; a 1200Neckam De Utensilibus (Wright Vocab. 1857, 117) Glosa enim per subbrevitatem et compendiosam per apices [Fr. gloss titles] scribi debet. Diez also cites Sp. tilde, Cat. titlla, Pg. til, ‘little stroke, accent, esp. the mark over ñ’, also Wallachian titlę, ‘the circumflex’, and Prov. titule, ‘the dot over i’, as representatives of the L. word in the modern Romanic langs. As apex was used by the Latin grammarians for the accent or mark over a long vowel, titulus and apex became to some extent synonymous; hence Wyclif's use of titil, titel, to render L. apex.]
1. A small stroke or point in writing or printing.
a. Orig. rendering L. apex ‘point, tip’, applied in classical L. to any minute point or part of a letter, also to the mark over a long vowel, as á, later also to a line indicating an abbreviation. More recently applied also to the Spanish tilde or circumflex over ñ, formerly to the cedilla under ç. By extension, any stroke or tick with a pen.
The literal notion of a point of a letter passed over to that of the smallest point of that which was written or prescribed. This took place already in late Heb. with the word qōts, lit. ‘thorn, prick’, represented in Greek by κεραία ‘horn, projecting point’, and in L. by apex, in Wyclif translated titil: see the quots.
1382Wyclif Matt. v. 18 Til heuen and erthe passe, oon i [gloss that is leste lettre], or titil [1388 o lettir or o titel; Vulg. apex], shal nat passe fro the lawe, til alle thingis be don. ― Luke xvi. 17 Forsothe it is liȝter heuene and erthe to passe ouer, than o titil [Tindale (1526), Geneva, 1611 title; Tind. (1534), Great tytle; Coverd. tittle (Matt. v. 18 tyttle), Rheims tittle] falle fro the lawe. c1440Promp. Parv. 494/2 Tytylle, titulus, apex. 1483Cath. Angl. 389/2 A Tytille (A. Titylle), titulus, apex, epigrama. 1570Levins Manip. 124/15 A Tittil, apex. 1636Jackson Creed viii. xxvii. §3 The words..answered punctually and identically to every apex or title of S. Matthew's quotation or paraphrase. 1648Gage West Ind. 216 This letter ç, or c with a tittle under it, is pronounced like s. 1712F. T. Shorthand 4, I in the beginning of a Word is express'd by a small Tittle or touch of the Pen. 1911W. Caven in Fundamentals IV. 61 ‘Tittle’, literally little horn or apex, designates the little lines or projections by which Hebrew letters, similar in other respects, differ from each other.
b. The dot over the letter i; a punctuation mark; a diacritic point over a letter; any one of the Hebrew and Arabic vowel-points and accents; also, a pip on dice.
1538Elyot, Punctus, seu punctum, a poynte or tytle. 1552Huloet, Tytle or prycke in letters, punctus. 1556Withals Dict. (1568) 64 b/1 Canicula, is the litle blacke title in the dyse,..as sise, sinke, catre, trey. 1665Hooke Microgr. 121 The smallest black spot or tittle of Ink. 1666Tillotson Rule Faith ii. v. Wks. 1742 IV. 648 The transcribing..of such myriads of words, single letters and tittles or stops. 1676Moxon Print Lett. 28 The Stem and Tittle of this j is made like i. 1783Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. Ser. ii. (1862) III. 151 Y⊇ person said, ‘y⊇ Dk [of Marlborough] puts no tittles upon the i's’. ‘O’, says y⊇ Prince [Eugene], ‘it saves his Grace's ink’. 1785J. Trusler Mod. Times III. 92 Only take care to put the tittles to your i's, and the crosses to your t's. 1888Doughty Arabia Deserta II. 43 [He knows] his jots and his titles (the vowel points in their skeleton writing), and he knows nothing else.
†c. A name for the (usually) three dots ({tittle}), following the letters and contractions, in the alphabet on horn-books, where it is usually followed by Est Amen; so that tittle est Amen came to be used for ‘the end or conclusion’. Obs.
(See cuts 166–168 in Tuer Hist. Horn-book II.)
a1548Hall Chron., Rich. III 35, I then..began to dispute with my selfe, little considerynge that thus my earnest was turned euen to a tittyl not so good as, estamen. 1594Nashe Terrors Night Wks. (Grosart) III. 251 This is the Tittle est amen of it. 1596― Saffron Walden G iv b, A per se, con per se, tittle, est, Amen!..why he comes vppon thee (man) with a whole Horn-booke. 1602How a Man may chuse gd. Wife iii. i. E ij b, In processe of time I came to & [printed e] percee, and com perce, and tittle; and then I got to a, e, i, o, u. 1630T. Johnson New Bk. New Conceits A v, In old time they vsed three prickes at the latter end of the Crosse row,..which they caused children to call tittle, tittle, tittle: signifying that as there were three pricks, and those three made but one stop, euen so there were three Persons, and yet but one God.
†d. A dot-like anther in a flower. Obs. rare.
1578Lyte Dodoens ii. xlv. 203 There hange also sixe smal thrommes, or short threds, with litle titles or pointed notes, like as in the Lillies.
2. fig. The smallest or a very small part of something; a minute amount. Often in phrase jot or tittle (from sense 1 a): see jot n.1
[Cf.1382in 1 a.] c1400Apol. Loll. 34 So is no man worþi to mak a letter or title of his to go by vnfillid. 1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions App. 314, I neither wille penne any thyng other wise..ne adde..any title of myne owne. 1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 41 Images crept into the Churche by title and litle. 1610G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. i. xxxvi, Thy love? he hath no title to a tittle. 1730T. Boston Mem. x. (ed. Morrison) 303 This makes me to account the better of these titles of the law, as divine. 1820Scott Let. to Ld. Montagu 22 Feb., in Lockhart, I owe much more to his father's memory than ever I can pay a tittle of. 1884F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sc. i. (1885) 9 Every tittle of the evidence is valued.
b. to a tittle, with minute exactness, to the smallest particular, to a T.
1607Beaumont Woman Hater iii. iii, I'll quote him to a tittle. 1700Bp. Patrick Comm. Deut. xxviii. 53 This was fulfilled to a tittle by Vespasian and his son Titus. 1805Fessenden Democr. (1806) II. 81 That I might suit them to a tittle, Have stretch'd the truth—and lied a little. 1855Browning Fra Lippo 26 He's Judas to a tittle, that man is!
Hence † ˈtittled a. Obs. rare, marked by tittles or vowel-points; having the Semitic vowel-points inserted, pointed: cf. point v.1 3 c.
1684N. S. Crit. Eng. Edit. Bible iv. 28 There is none of them that make use of Tittl'd Vowels.
▪ II. tittle, v.1 Now dial. or colloq.|ˈtɪt(ə)l|
Forms: 4–7 title, 5 tytyll, 6 tytle, tyttle, 8– tittle.
[Of obscure origin; hardly known before 1400; app. onomatopœic. In use somewhat earlier than tattle, but app. treated as a parallel form of that vb. with lighter vowel expressing lighter sound; cf. the reduplicated tittle-tattle. Its relation to the earlier tutel, totel, in the same sense, is difficult to determine.]
intr. and trans. To speak in a whisper or in a low voice, to whisper; also, to tell or utter by way of tattle or gossip; esp. † to whisper in the ear of, to tell (a person) confidentially (obs.): cf. tickle v.2
1399[implied in tittler1]. c1450Mankind 550, in Macro Plays 21, I xall go to hys ere and tytyll þer in. 1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. xxiv. 60 They tytled the prince euer in his eare, and entysed hym to haue made warre. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VII 22 He caused diuerse to inculcate and put in her hed & tyttle in her eare, that the mariage made with Maximilian was of no strength. c1610Sir J. Melvil Mem. Pref. (1735) 21, I should have..titled in the Queen's ear that her rebellious subjects should have been exemplarily punished. 1887J. Service Dr. Duguid xii. 77 They were a' tittlin' thegether and talkin' in this form.
Hence ˈtittling vbl. n.1 and ppl. a.
13..S. Eng. Leg. (MS. Bodl. 779) in Herrig Archiv LXXXII. 339/169 Ȝif þis titlyng come al to þe emperour no man ne may don him non help. 1565–73Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Argutus, Meretrix arguta, a harlot full of wordes: a titlyng harlot. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ii. (S.T.S.) I. 134 Ferleg..was steired vpe throuch titling of sum of the courteouris in his eires. 1785Burns Holy Fair ix, Here sits a raw o' tittlin jades.
▪ III. tittle, v.2 dial.|ˈtɪt(ə)l|
Also 9 tiddle.
[perh. in origin a dial. var. of tickle v.; also locally confused with tiddle v. Cf. also L. titillāre to tickle; but influence of this is doubtful.]
trans. and intr. = tickle v. in various senses. Hence ˈtittling vbl. n.2, tickling; † ˈtittler (titler), one who or that which tickles, a tickler.
13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1726 Þer he [the fox] watz þreted, & ofte þef called, & ay þe titleres at his tayl, þat tary he ne myȝt. 1579Hake Newes Powles Churchyard vii. F viij b, The countrey maides that come from far, as straungers to the towne: Whome still the Trottes doe tittle so, that straight all shame layde downe, They yelde them selues as captiues queanes, vnto some whorish caue. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Tittle, v. to tickle. 1866J. G. Nall Gt. Yarmouth & Lowestoft 693 A girl says ‘I 'ont be tiddled by you nor no one’. 1877N.W. Linc. Gloss., Tittling, tickling. 1881Leicestersh. Gloss., Tittle, v. a., var. pron. of ‘tickle’. 1888J. Hartley Clock Alm. 8 (E.D.D.) Her nose end's sewer to tittle like mad. 1900Daily News 6 June 6/3 The..vendors of ‘tiddlers’ sold them quickly—for the ‘tiddled’ naturally wanted to ‘tiddle’ others in turn. [See also tiddler2.]
▪ IV. tittle
var. tiddle v., to fondle; to trifle. |