tittle

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtɪt.əl/^[1]

Etymology

It comes from Middle English titel, titil,^[2][3][4][5] from Medieval Latin titulus (“a mark over a letter”),^[2][5][6] from Latin titulus “inscription, heading”.^[2][3][5] It is the same word as title, with a specialized sense.^[4][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small stroke or point in writing (1382), in the Wycliffite Bible at Matthew 5:18,^[7][4][3] where it translates Latin apex in the sense of an accent over a vowel.^[4][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The Latin apex in that verse renders Greek keraía “little horn”, which in turn translates Hebrew qots “thorn”, used of the small strokes that distinguish similar Hebrew letters.^[4] From the same verse came the phrase jot or tittle and the figurative sense of the smallest part of something.^[7][4] From 1538 the word was used for the dot over an i and other diacritics.^[7]

Timeline

• 1382 – a small stroke in writing; the smallest part.^[7][3]
• 1538 – the dot over an i; a diacritic.^[7]
• 1607 – to a tittle, with minute exactness.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A small diacritic mark, such as an accent or the dot over an i.
2. The tiniest bit; an iota or jot.

Related words

• iota
• tilde
• titer
• titre
• title
• jot

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press