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tout

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tuten (“to peep, peer”),[2][3][4][5] also spelled touten and tute,[6] probably inherited from Old English *tūtian,[2][7][8] a form that is not recorded.[8] It is close to the attested tōtian (“to stick out, peep out”),[2][3][9][10] the source of toot "to peep", and to tȳtan (“to peep out, become visible”), recorded once.[7][11][12] In Middle English tuten and toten had the same sense and occur as variant readings of one another.[2] Hoad and Ayto trace the verb to Proto-Germanic *tūt- (“to project, stick out”),[7][8][13] also the source of Dutch tuit (“spout, nozzle”), Middle Dutch tūte (“nipple”), Middle Low German tūte (“horn, funnel”) and Old Norse túta (“a teat-like knob”).[7][13][14] Merriam-Webster compares Norwegian tyte (“to stick out, ooze out”) and a Frisian word for pipe, spout or snout.[5] Holthausen calls the origin of tōtian unknown,[15] and Partridge calls it an obscure group.[12] Merriam-Webster explains the sense "to praise loudly" instead as an alteration of toot "blow a horn", perhaps influenced by tout.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To peep, peer or look out: before 1400, in the alliterative Alexander (Ashmole manuscript).[2] Barnhart likewise dates the Middle English verb to before 1400,[3] and the MED records the phrase touten oute, to jut out or protrude.[6][13]

Semantic evolution

Ayto sees the development as one from "stick out" to "peep, peek", then "spy on", and only in the 18th century "look for business".[8] The old sense died out in the 17th century,[2][16] but the form tout survived as a cant word:[2] in 1699 A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew recorded it for keeping a sharp lookout and for watching or spying on someone,[2] and Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes "Tout his muns", look in his face, from Head's English Rogue (1665).[17] Etymonline dates the cant verb to 1700.[13] From acting as a lookout it came to mean looking out for customers, jobs or votes and trying to get them (1731);[2][13][3] in racing slang, from 1812, it meant spying on racehorses in training to get information for betting.[2][13] In 1920, in Sinclair Lewis's Main Street, it is first used transitively for pressing goods or a person on people, and in American English for recommending them;[2][3] the sense of praising loudly or insistently is now common.[11][5] The OED notes that this cant use is what has separated tout from toot.[2] The noun followed the verb: a thieves' scout or watchman (1718),[2][3][13] a person who solicits custom (1853),[2][3][13] a racing tout (1864 in the OED, 1865 in Etymonline)[2][13] and a ticket tout (1959).[2] In northern Irish English and Scots a tout is also a spy or informer (1959).[2]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – to peep, peer, look out (obsolete by 1676).[2]
  • 1665 – in thieves' slang, to watch or spy on.[17] The OED first records it in 1699, as keeping a sharp lookout.[2]
  • 1718 – noun, a thieves' scout or watchman.[2][3]
  • 1731 – to look out for customers; to solicit business.[2][13][3]
  • 1754 – touter, one who solicits custom for an inn or coach line.[13]
  • 1812 – to spy on racehorses in training for betting purposes.[2][13]
  • 1819 – to keep tout, to keep watch.[2]
  • 1853 – noun, a person who solicits custom.[2][3]
  • 1864 – a racing tout.[2]
  • 1920 – transitive, to try to sell; to recommend or praise.[2][3]
  • 1959 – a ticket tout; in northern Irish English and Scots, an informer.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To solicit customers, business or votes, especially in a pushy or brazen way: Taxi drivers were touting for fares outside the station.[11][5][2]
  2. To try to sell something, or to promote it, especially by praising it loudly or excessively: The resort was touted as the finest on the coast.[11][5][2]
  3. (chiefly British) To spy on racehorses in training in order to get betting information; to sell such information or give tips.[11][5][2]
  4. (slang) To watch or spy on.[5][2]

Noun

  1. A person who solicits custom, especially in a pushy way.[11][5][2]
  2. (British) A ticket tout, a person who resells tickets for events at inflated prices.[2][16]
  3. A person who spies on racehorses or sells betting tips on them.[11][5][2]
  4. (Scotland and Northern Ireland) A spy or informer.[2]
  5. (slang) Watch, lookout, in keep tout.[2][5][16]

Word family

  • touter
  • toot

Usage notes

Several other words share the spelling.[2][16] The French word for "all" appears in borrowed phrases such as tout court, in short, simply (1747), le tout Paris, Parisian society (1894), and tout de suite, at once (1895).[2][16] A Scottish tout, of unknown origin, means a fit of ill humour (1787) or a slight bout of illness (1808),[2][16][5] and a Scottish verb tout meant to toss about in disorder (before 1568) and later to tease or vex (1808).[2][16][18] Another tout, perhaps from French, was a term for a specially successful result in certain games (1680).[2][19]

References

  1. ^ 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 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b 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)
  7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  10. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  16. ^ 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
  17. ^ a b 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)
  19. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.