tetter

Etymology 1

From Middle English teter, from Old English teter, tetr, tetra, from Proto-West Germanic *tetru, from Proto-Germanic *tetruz, *tetruhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dedru-, from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to flay, split, crack”).

noun

1. (now rare) Any of various pustular skin conditions.
   She works at St. Veronica’s hospital, lives nearby at the home of a Mrs. Quoad, a lady widowed long ago and since suffering a series of antiquated diseases—greensickness, tetter, kibes, purples, imposthumes and almonds in the ears, most recently a touch of scurvy. 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

verb

1. To affect with tetter.
   Most deaths are ugly, pathetic events, and Shakespeare must have seen his share of them in bodies tettered by the pox, made noseless by syphilis, or festering blackly from the plague. 1987, James L Calderwood, Shakespeare & the Denial of Death, page 134
   I bent down to touch him, for my revulsion had gone, and had been replaced by a great love and sorrow; and thus I wept upon his form, that was cold like a corpse's, its wasted brawn tettered all over with sores and encrustations that were not the botches and whelks of leprosy — though e'en then I would have embraced him, as St Hugh of Lincoln kissed many a leper for the good of his own spirit! 2009, Adam Thorpe, Hodd, published 2010, page 284

Etymology 2

Corruption of potato.

noun

1. (Regional Dixieland vernacular, obsolete) Potato, or sweet potato root.
   Buh Sparruh biggin fur brag, an eh say: "Me tetter, him heap bigger den any me see. Me farruh befo me blan plant tetter, an him tetter bigger ner de calf er me leg. Me kin beat me farruh raise tetter 1888, Charles Colcock Jones, Negro Myths from the Georgia Coast, Told in the Vernacular
   But mebbe you ax, is tetter wine("vine") a bad ting? No, I say, tetter wine is a good ting. You cant hab tetter widout de tetter wine. Dat wha' tetter wine fur? To mek tetter. But dat tetter wine dat ent mek tetter, dats a bad tetter wine kase e barren tetter wine. 1895, John G. Williams, "De Ole Plantation."