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Etymology and origin of the English word tot

Pronunciation

tot1 small child, small drink

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1725 Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd

Etymology

The word for a small child is of uncertain or unknown origin,[2][3][4][5][6] first recorded in Scotland and originally a dialect word.[7][6] Barnhart suggests it may be a shortened form of totter,[8][7][9] and Collins and Dictionary.com of totterer.[10][11] Others compare Old Norse tottr, a nickname of a dwarf, tutte (“little child”) and Danish tommeltot (“Tom Thumb”), in which the first part means "thumb";[9][12][13][7] the OED records the Icelandic and Danish words but finds no connection,[2] and Barnhart thinks the late appearance of the English word makes any link obscure.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A very small child: 1725, in Allan Ramsay's Scots pastoral The Gentle Shepherd, which speaks of wee Tots at a mother's knee.[2][7][14]

Semantic evolution

From the child the word passed to small things: from 1828 it is recorded in Yorkshire dialect for a very small drinking vessel or child's mug, and for a minute quantity, especially a dram of drink.[2][9] The English Dialect Dictionary records the drinking vessel, often of horn and holding from a quarter to half a pint, from Yorkshire and Lancashire to Worcestershire.[15] A tot of rum or whisky is now chiefly British.[10][6] A verb tot, to toddle or totter, is recorded in Scotland from 1824, perhaps a playful shortening of totter, but the OED is unsure of its connection with the child.[2][15] Tot-o'er-seas was a local name of the goldcrest in 1885,[2][9] and tot lot, a playground for small children, is recorded from 1944.[9]

Timeline

  • 1725 – a very small child, in Allan Ramsay.[2][7][14]
  • 1828 – a small drinking vessel; a dram of drink; anything very small.[2][9]
  • 1885 – tot-o'er-seas, the goldcrest.[2][9]
  • 1944 – tot lot, a children's playground.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small child; a toddler: The swings were crowded with tots and their parents.[10][3][4][2]
  2. (chiefly British) A small measure of spirits or other strong drink; a dram: a tot of rum.[10][6][3]
  3. A small amount of anything.[10][2][4]
  4. (chiefly dialect) A small drinking vessel or child's mug.[2][3][15]

Word family

  • tot lot

tot2 to add up

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1755 Charlotte Charke, Narrative of the Life
Ultimate origin
Latin tōtus

Etymology

The verb meaning to add up comes from an older noun for the total of an addition,[2][16][9] which is a shortening of total or of Latin tōtum (“the whole”).[2][16][6][5] Merriam-Webster derives it from a written abbreviation of the word total.[3] Weekley thinks it may partly be due to an obsolete verb tot, to mark an item as paid in the sheriff's accounts, from tot (“so many, so much”).[13] Etymonline compares the colloquial tote, the whole, from 1771, from tōtus.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, the total of an addition, is recorded from 1755, in Charlotte Charke's Narrative of the Life,[2][9] and the verb, to add together and work out the total of, from 1770, in Henry Brooke's The Fool of Quality.[2] Etymonline dates the verb to 1760,[9] and Merriam-Webster to about 1772.[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb is usually used with up.[9][3][10] Intransitive tot up, to amount or come to a sum, is recorded from 1882, in Walter Besant.[2] The noun later meant an addition sum, and in Britain a column of figures to be added, as in schoolchildren doing tots;[2][3] the Shorter Oxford now marks it as archaic.[16] In British law, totting up is the procedure by which earlier endorsements on a driving licence count towards disqualification after a further motoring offence.[16] A dialect use in Westmorland, tot up, to size a person up, was recorded in 1888.[15]

Timeline

  • 1755 – noun, the total of an addition.[2][9]
  • 1770 – verb, to add up.[2] Etymonline dates the verb to 1760.[9]
  • 1882 – intransitive tot up, to amount to.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To add numbers or amounts together, usually with up: The cashier totted up the receipts at closing time.[10][3][6][2]
  2. (intransitive) To come to a total; to amount to.[3][2]
  3. (chiefly British) To accumulate something over a period of time, usually with up.[6][17]

Noun

  1. (chiefly British) An addition sum; a column of figures to be added.[3][11][2]
  2. (archaic) A total, the sum of an addition.[16][11]

Word family

  • tot up

Usage notes

Several other words spelled tot are now obsolete or slang.[2][16] One, of unknown origin, meant a fool or simpleton (about 1425 to 1660).[2] Another, from tot (“so many”), was the word tot or the letter T written against an item in the sheriff's accounts to show that the sum had been levied (1529 to 1798), with a verb tot, to mark an item or a name in this way (1444 to 1798).[2][16][9][3] Among dust-heap pickers a tot was a bone, and later anything worth salvaging from refuse (1874), whence totting, scavenging;[2][16][14] this word too is of unknown origin.[2][16]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ a b c d 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 h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
Cite this entry

“Tot.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tot. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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