tidy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tidi,^[2][3][4] formed from English tide + -y,^{[5][6][7][8][9][3]} from tide in its old sense "time, season".^[6][10][11] That noun is from Old English tīd (“time”).^[12][9][6] Similar adjectives are Old High German zîtig, German zeitig (“timely”), Dutch tijdig, Swedish tidig and Danish tidig.^[5][12][6] The MED suggests that the senses of worth and ability may owe something to Old Norse tíðr.^[2] Johnson had derived the word from Icelandic.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

In good condition, of good appearance; plump, healthy: before 1325, in Genesis and Exodus (composed about 1250), of ears of corn "ranc and wel tidi".^[5][14][3] Etymonline glosses this first sense "in good condition, healthy, likely to grow".^[6]

Semantic evolution

The sense "timely, seasonable, in season", presumably the original one, is recorded only from about 1350, in William of Palerne, and died out in the early 18th century.^[5][6][8] From the same date the word was a general word of praise, "good, worthy, brave, skilful", until the early 17th century.^[5][2] Trench observed that it had lost the reference to time that survives in noontide and eventide.^[14] The modern sense, "neat, orderly", appears in the 18th century:^[10][11] of persons in 1706, in the edition of Phillips's New World of Words revised by Kersey,^[5][3] and of rooms and things in 1828, in Webster.^[5] Colloquial senses followed: "considerable", as in a tidy sum, from 1839, and "fairly good" from 1844, both first in Dickens.^[5] The verb, "to make neat", is recorded from 1821, in Mary Russell Mitford, and was at first colloquial, often with up.^[5][6][9] As a noun tidy was a pinafore in English dialect, recorded from before 1825 in Forby's East Anglian vocabulary,^[5] and the English Dialect Dictionary records it from the northern counties, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire to Surrey and Sussex;^[15] from 1850 it was also an ornamental cover for the back of a chair.^[5][6]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – in good condition, plump, healthy.^[5][3]
• c. 1350 – timely, seasonable (obsolete by 1720); good, worthy, skilful (obsolete by 1625).^[5]
• 1493 – Scots, of a cow, giving milk (obsolete by 1678).^[5]
• 1706 – of persons, neat, orderly.^[5][3]
• 1821 – verb, to make neat, put in order.^[5][6][9]
• before 1825 – noun, a pinafore (dialect).^[5]
• 1828 – of things, neatly arranged.^[5]
• 1839 – considerable, as in a tidy sum.^[5]
• 1844 – fairly good.^[5]
• 1850 – noun, a cover for the back of a chair.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Neat and in good order: a tidy kitchen.^[16][5]
2. Of a person, keeping things or oneself neat and in order.^[5][16]
3. (informal) Fairly large; considerable: She made a tidy profit on the house.^[16][5]
4. Fairly good; satisfactory or acceptable.^[9][5]
5. (dialect) Plump, healthy or good-looking.^[9][5]
6. (obsolete, 1350–1720) Timely or seasonable.^[5][7][13]

Verb

1. To put something in order; to make neat, often with up: He tidied up the garage.^[16][9][5]
2. To make things tidy, often with up.^[9][16]

Noun

1. A small container for keeping odds and ends in order, such as a desk tidy or a sink tidy.^[16][9]
2. (chiefly US) An ornamental cover for the back or arms of a chair; an antimacassar.^{[16][9][5][6]}
3. (dialect) A child's pinafore.^[5][15]

Word family

• tidily
• tidiness

Related words

• tide
• tidings
• betide
• titivate
• untidy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ 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 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b 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 Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
15. ^ a b 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)
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins