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Etymology and origin of the English word tiff

English has had three words spelled tiff: an obsolete verb "to dress, adorn", a noun for a drink of weak liquor, and the noun for a petty quarrel.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

tiff1 to dress, adorn (obsolete)

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1225 Ancrene Riwle
Borrowed from
Old French tifer via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old French tifer

Etymology

The verb for dressing or adorning is inherited from Middle English tiffen,[5][2] borrowed from Old French tifer, also tiffer (“to adorn”),[1][5][3][2] recorded from the 12th century, the base of modern French attifer.[1][3] Mayhew and Skeat glossed the Middle English verb as to trick out, trim and adorn.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To dress or deck out one's person or hair: probably about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.[1] The Middle English Dictionary's earliest quotation is from Arthour and Merlin (c. 1330, perhaps composed before 1300), of maidens who adorn themselves in pride.[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb was used for making oneself beautiful, painting the face and arranging the hair, often in sermons against pride, and also for disguising oneself.[5] About 1400 it could mean to put in order or arrange, as in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and to prepare or make, and about 1440 the Promptorium Parvulorum records it for being busy about trifles.[1] The Shorter Oxford notes that it is not recorded between the late 15th and the mid 17th centuries.[3] In the 18th century it returned as a familiar word, like French attifer, for dressing up, and also intransitively, for dressing oneself, in Congreve's Way of the World (1700).[1] A noun tiff, the way one's hair or wig is dressed, is recorded in 1703.[1][3] The verb was obsolete after 1768.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1225 – to dress, deck out one's person or hair.[1]
  • c. 1400 – to put in order, arrange.[1]
  • c. 1440 – to be busy about trifles.[1]
  • 1700 – intransitive, to dress oneself.[1]
  • 1703 – noun, the manner of dressing the hair or a wig.[1][3]
  • 1768 – last record of the transitive verb.[1]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (obsolete, 1225–1768) To dress or adorn; to deck out one's person or hair.[1][2][3]

tiff2 a drink of liquor

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1635 before 1635, R. Corbet, On J. Dawson

Etymology

The noun for liquor is of unknown origin;[1][3][2][7] the OED suggests it may be imitative, comparing the verb tift.[1] Green's Dictionary of Slang tentatively connects it with tipple,[8] and Johnson took it for "a low word" without etymology.[9] The verb is from the noun.[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Liquor, especially weak or small liquor: before 1635, in Richard Corbet's elegy on John Dawson, a butler.[1][8] The Shorter Oxford dates the noun to the mid 17th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

From 1727, in Bailey's dictionary, a tiff was also a sip or small drink of punch or other diluted liquor,[1] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "liquor; drink".[9] The verb, to drink, especially slowly or in sips, is recorded from 1769.[1][8] In 19th-century dialect the word, also as tift, was used in Scotland and northern and western England for a small draught of liquor, and at Christ Church, Oxford, for small beer.[10] The OED traces Anglo-Indian tiffin, a light lunch, to the slang tiffing, taking a little drink, from this verb,[1] as Weekley did.[11]

Timeline

  • before 1635 – liquor, especially weak or small liquor.[1][8]
  • 1727 – a sip or small drink of punch or diluted liquor.[1]
  • 1769 – verb, to drink slowly, to sip.[1][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic) Weak liquor; small beer.[2][1][3]
  2. (archaic) A small draught or sip of liquor, such as punch.[2][1][3]

Verb

  1. (rare) To drink slowly or in small sips.[3][1]

tiff3 petty quarrel, fit of temper

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1727 Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary

Etymology

The noun for a petty quarrel is of unknown origin.[1][12][2][13][14][15] The OED thinks it probably imitative, from the sound of a slight puff of air or gas,[1][16] and Klein and Weekley compare sniff, puff and huff.[7][11] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it as probably dialectal at first, and the Shorter Oxford compares tift;[3][17] Partridge saw it as an eased form of the Scots and northern tift, a puff of wind.[18] The verb comes from the noun.[1][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A slight outburst of temper: 1727, in Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary, which also records the verb, to be in a tiff.[1][15][8]

Semantic evolution

The meaning moved from a fit of ill humour to a petty quarrel, recorded by the OED from 1753 in Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison,[1] by Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged from 1754,[15][2] and by Green's Dictionary of Slang already in Smollett's Peregrine Pickle (1751).[8] The older sense is now rare or merged into the newer one.[1][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a fit of peevishness or sullenness; a pet", and the verb as "to be in a pet; to quarrel", calling both low words.[9] The verb, to quarrel in a small way, was in colloquial use from the mid 18th century, as in Sheridan's School for Scandal (1777).[8] In 19th-century dialect, also as tift, the noun was in general use in Scotland, Ireland and England for a slight quarrel.[10] Carlyle used it in 1858 for a short outburst of laughter.[1]

Timeline

  • 1727 – a slight outburst of temper; verb, to be in a tiff.[1][15]
  • 1751 – a petty quarrel, in Smollett.[8] The OED's first record is from 1753, and Barnhart dates it to 1754.[1][15]
  • 1858 – a short outburst of laughter (rare).[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A slight or petty quarrel, especially between friends or lovers; a spat: The two partners had a tiff over the seating plan.[13][2][1]
  2. A brief fit of ill humour or petulance.[13][2][1]

Verb

  1. To have a petty quarrel, or to be in a bad mood.[13][2][1]
  • tiffin
  • tift

Usage notes

The phrase lovers' tiff names a quarrel between lovers.[3][8] In Anglo-Indian use tiff was also a verb meaning to take lunch, apparently a back-formation from tiffin.[1][2][3] TIFF is also an acronym for tagged image file format, an image format, from the 1990s.[17][3]

References

  1. ^ 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 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d 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)
  6. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  9. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ 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)
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  17. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Tiff.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tiff. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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