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Etymology and origin of the English word chit

Pronunciation

chit1 young animal, child

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1382 before 1382, Wycliffite Bible (early version)
Inherited from
Middle English chitte

Etymology

The word for a young animal or a child is inherited from Middle English chitte (“kitten, cub”),[2][3] of uncertain origin.[4][5][6][7] The OED notes that it is often identified with chit, a sprout, but is recorded more than two centuries earlier; since it regularly translates Latin catulus (“young animal, whelp”), it compares kitten and kitling, the Cheshire dialect word for a cat of the same form, and Scots cheet (“puss”).[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise takes it as perhaps an alteration of kit, short for kitling, influenced by pairs such as church and kirk,[2] and Klein and Weekley as a variant of kit or kitten.[8][9] Wiktionary traces it to an unrecorded Old English *ċitten, from Proto-Germanic *kittīną (“young animal, fawn, kid”).[1] Etymonline suggests a playful deformation of kitten and reports comparisons with Old High German kizzin (“kid”) and with Old English cīþ (“shoot, sprout”);[5] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English connect it with that sprout word,[10][11] while Partridge proposed a thinning of French chat (“cat”) influenced by kitten.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The young of an animal, a whelp, cub or kitten: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.[4][2] Weekley notes that Wycliffe wrote chittes, in a variant reading whelpis, for the catuli of the Vulgate in Isaiah 34:15.[9] Etymonline dates this sense to the late 14th century.[5]

Semantic evolution

From 1625, in Middleton's Game at Chess, the word was applied more or less contemptuously to a child, as kid, cub and whelp were;[4][9] Etymonline dates "small child" to the 1620s.[5] By 1657 it was used of a person thought no better than a child, and Johnson (1755) defined it as "a child; a baby", "generally used of young persons in contempt".[4][13] The animal sense died out after the early 18th century.[4][6] Since then, the OED suggests, speakers have tended to link the word with chit, a sprout or young shoot, comparing a chit of a girl with a slip of a girl;[4][9] today it is used mostly of a pert or impudent young woman.[4][7][2]

Timeline

  • before 1382 – the young of an animal, a whelp or kitten (obsolete by 1713).[4]
  • 1625 – a child, used contemptuously; a brat.[4][5]
  • before 1657 – a person considered no better than a child, later especially a young woman.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (disparaging) A pert or impudent young woman or girl: a mere chit of a girl.[7][2][6][4]
  2. A child, especially a small one; a brat.[2][6][4]
  3. (obsolete, 1382–1713) The young of an animal; a whelp, cub or kitten.[4][2][6]

chit2 note, voucher

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1757 E. Ives, Voyage to India (published 1773)
Ultimate origin
Hindi चिट्ठी

Etymology

The word for a note or voucher is a shortening from English of chitty,[4][6][5][14][2][7] an Anglo-Indian word recorded from 1698 in the OED, 1673 in Barnhart and the 1690s in Etymonline.[4][14][5] The OED's revision of 2022 adds that the shortening was perhaps influenced by the pronunciation of a Tamil word for a note.[4] chitty is borrowed from Hindi चिट्ठी (ciṭṭhī, “letter, note, written message”),[1][2][15][8] and the Marathi word of the same form;[4][5][16] the OED glosses the Hindi word as "document, letter, note, promissory note, pass" and calls its origin uncertain.[4] Barnhart, Klein, Etymonline and Hobson-Jobson derive it from a Sanskrit word meaning "distinctively marked, bright, spotted", the source of cheetah,[14][8][5][16][7] while the American Heritage Dictionary proposes a reconstructed Sanskrit *ciṣṭa- (“message”).[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short official note, signed by someone in authority, that allows the bearer to do something: 1757, in E. Ives's account of a voyage to India, published in 1773.[4] Etymonline, Barnhart and Green's date chit to 1776, when a general "wrote a chit" in the trial of Maha Rajah Nundocomar.[5][14][17]

Semantic evolution

Hobson-Jobson explained the Anglo-Indian word as a letter or note, a certificate given to a servant, or a pass.[16] From 1868 it is recorded, chiefly in South Asia, for a written reference on a person's ability or reliability, used when looking for a new job.[4][2] Its best-known modern use is for a signed note of a small debt, especially for food and drink, which Barnhart gives as the main sense;[14][15][2] in Britain it is also a memorandum, a requisition or a receipt.[7] American English has added a figurative sense, credit or goodwill earned by impressing someone with power, as in to call in one's chits.[15]

Timeline

  • 1757 – a short signed note granting permission; a pass.[4] Etymonline and Barnhart give 1776.[5][14]
  • 1868 – a written reference or character for a servant or employee.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A signed note of a small debt, especially for food or drink: He signed a chit at the bar instead of paying cash.[15][2][7][14]
  2. A short note or memorandum, or (chiefly British) a requisition or receipt.[7][2][15]
  3. An official note allowing the bearer to do something; a pass.[4][16]
  4. A written reference or certificate of good character, as given to a servant.[2][4][16]
  5. (informal) Credit or goodwill earned by impressing someone in power.[15]

Usage notes

A separate chit, a shoot or sprout, especially of a potato, is recorded from 1601, with a verb to chit, to sprout;[4][6][2] it is probably from Old English cīþ (“shoot, sprout”), though the change of vowel and consonant is unexplained.[4][2][8] The OED also has an obsolete chit, a chickpea, a corruption of chich,[4] whose plural chits survived for small or broken rice.[4][2] In several northern and Scottish dialects chit was a cat, or the word used to call one.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  15. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  16. ^ a b c d e Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
  17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
Cite this entry

“Chit.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/chit. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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