τιτθός

Forms

τῐτθός (titthós) m (genitive τῐτθοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a nursery word.^[2][3] Beekes, Frisk and Chantraine treat it, with τίτθη (títthē, “wet nurse”), as a short form, with an expressive doubled consonant, from Ancient Greek τιθήνη (tithḗnē, “wet nurse”).^[2][4][3] That word is a reduplicated formation of children's language from the verb θῆσθαι (thêsthai, “to suck”),^[2][4][3] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suck”).^[2][1] Frisk mentions Nehring's opposite view, that the short form came first and the longer word was derived from it.^[4]

Related words from the same root are θηλή (thēlḗ, “teat”) and θῆλυς (thêlus, “female”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the late 5th century BC, in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae, where a woman's breasts are used as proof of her sex, and in the Hippocratic Aphorisms.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In classical Attic it was the ordinary word for a woman's breast, especially a mother's breast given to her baby, as in Lysias.^[6][2] Medical writers also used it, rarely, of the male breast, and in the plural of an animal's teats.^[7] Galen speaks of the nipple of the breast.^[7] Philo uses it once for a nurse who rears a child, the same as τροφός (trophós).^[7]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Lysias use it for a woman's breast; it also appears in the Hippocratic Aphorisms.^[6][7][9]
• 4th century BC – Plato has it in the Republic.^[8]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Philo uses it for a nurse.^[7][9]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it of the male breast and of the teats of animals.^[7][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman's breast, especially a mother's breast that feeds a baby.^[7][6]
2. Rarely, the male breast; in the plural, the teats of an animal.^[7]
3. A nurse who rears a child.^[7]

Word family

• ἐπιτίτθιος (epitítthios)
• τιτθίον (titthíon)
• ὑποτίτθιος (hupotítthios)
• ἀπότιτθος (apótitthos)
• τιτθολαβέω (tittholabéō)

Related words

• τιτθεία (tittheía)
• τιτθεύω (tittheúō)
• τίτθη (títthē)
• τιθήνη (tithḗnē)
• θηλή (thēlḗ)
• θῆλυς (thêlus)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge