ditto
/ˈdɪtəʊ
/noun (plural dittos)
1The same thing again (used in lists and accounts and often indicated by a ditto mark under the word or figure to be repeated).
1.1 informal Used to indicate that something already said is applicable a second time: if one folds his arms, so does the other; if one crosses his legs, ditto...
- I complained and was told I could have only 500 words; ditto, then 700 words.
- So zero marks for slow, ditto for marketing effectiveness and maybe full marks for enigmatic and intriguing.
- And ditto the literary works being sampled, which in this novel pay homage to the half-submerged tradition of post-1950 British experimental fiction.
Origin
Early 17th century (in the sense 'in the aforesaid month'): from Tuscan dialect, variant of Italian detto 'said', from Latin dictus 'said'.
A Tuscan dialect form of Italian detto ‘said’, from Latin dictus, is the root of ditto. In the 17th century it meant in Italian ‘(in) the aforesaid month’. English merchants began to use it in accounts and lists, where the word is usually represented by double apostrophes (ditto marks) under the word or figure to be repeated: the symbol would be read out as ‘ditto’. In the later 18th century clothiers and tailors used it as shorthand for ‘the same material’, and a suit of dittos was a suit of the same material and colour throughout.