tit

Etymology 1

From Middle English tit, titte, tette, from Old English tit, titt, from Proto-West Germanic *titt, from Proto-Germanic *tittaz (“teat; nipple; breast”), of expressive origin. Perhaps related to an original meaning “to suck”; compare Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-y-. Doublet of teat, which was borrowed from Old French. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tit, Dutch tiet, dialectal Dutch tet, German Zitze, Titte, Hunsrik Ditz, Yiddish ציצע (tsitse).

noun

1. (now often considered vulgar) A mammary gland, teat.
2. (slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A person's breast or nipple.
   I have enjoyed taking to my writing bureau and writing about poverty, benefit reform and the coalition government in the manner of a shit Dickens, or Orwell, but with tits. 2012, Caitlin Moran, Moranthology, Ebury Press, published 2012, page 13
   Sanch tossed his head back, threw open his shirt, cupped his beanbag-shaped male breasts and jiggled them at us. Ford and I were laughing but Kat said, "I think they're the most beautiful tits." 2006, Benjamin Kunkel, Indecision
3. (Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, derogatory, slang) An idiot; a fool.
   Look at that tit driving on the wrong side of the road!
   I know a lot of tits, Guv'nor. But I don't know any quite as fucking stupid as these two. 2000, Guy Ritchie, Snatch (motion picture), spoken by Errol (Andy Beckwith)
   “What did you say to the cops?” / “I told them everything about the smuggling ring.” / “Why the fuck did you do that?” / “They were nice to me.” / “They’re always nice to people they want to get information from, you dumb tit.” 2002, Dick Plamondon, Have You Ever Been Screwed, iUniverse, page 234
   John Watson (to Sherlock Holmes): It's Lestrade. Says they're all coming over here right now. Queuing up to slap on the handcuffs, every single officer you ever made feel like a tit. Which is a lot of people. 2012 January 15, Stephen Thompson, "The Reichenbach Fall", episode 2-3 of Sherlock, 00:52:46-00:52:55
4. (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) A police officer; a "tithead".

Etymology 2

Perhaps imitative of light tap. Compare earlier tip for tap (“blow for blow”), from tip + tap; compare also dialectal tint for tant.

noun

1. (archaic) A light blow or hit (now usually in the phrase tit for tat).

verb

1. (transitive or intransitive, obsolete) To strike lightly, tap, pat.
   Come tit me, come tat me, come throw a kiss at me—how is that? 1897 [1607], John Webster, “Northward Hoe”, in The Dramatic Works of John Webster, page 203
2. (transitive, obsolete) To taunt, to reproach.
   they would vpbraid me therewith calling me idle Drone; Titting and flouting at me, that I should offer to sit downe at boord with cleane hand. 1623, James Mabbe, The Rogue: Or The Life of Guzman de Alfarache, translation of Guzmán de Alfarache by Mateo Alemán

Etymology 3

Probably of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; found earliest in titling and titmouse; compare Faroese títlingur, dialectal Norwegian titling (“small stockfish”). Wikispecies

noun

1. A chickadee; a small passerine bird of the genus Parus or the family Paridae, common in the Northern Hemisphere.
2. Any of various other small passerine birds.
3. (archaic) A small horse; a nag.
   Bob trotted gently by the side of the carriage. “Not a bad looking tit,” said St. Leger, as they went along. 1854, Charles James Collins, The life and adventures of Dick Diminy, page 156
   Gossiping, and smoothing the horse's mane down with his hand, "A nice little tit," said the man. 1862, Robert Kemp Philp, The Family friend, page 362
   I shall keep my eye open, and the first pretty little tit I see that I think will suit you, I shall make the guv'nor buy. 2019, George Manville Fenn, Cursed by a Fortune
4. (archaic) A young girl, later especially a minx, hussy.
   "What sort of a feringee is this?" said a lively little tit—"eh?" 1843, Charles James C. Davidson, Diary of Travels and Adventures in Upper India
   But I don't mind; she's a pretty little tit, and Dick has taught her to call me uncle. 1887, George Manville Fenn, The Master of the Ceremonies, page 44
   What, I suppose, Mr. Loader, you will be for your old friend the black ey'd girl, from Rosemary Lane. Ha ha! Well, 'tis a merry little tit. A thousand pities she's such a reprobate! 2013, Vic Gatrell, The First Bohemians: Life and Art in London's Golden Age, page xcix
5. A morsel; a bit.
   Now if you can shew so neat a foot, ( shewing her shoe ) —Parlez moi de ça : —I suppose I was not noble enough for this squire; he must have a bit a blood, a tit of quality — but I shall be a countess soon, and a mighty good sort of countess I shall make. 1813, James Lawrence, The Englishman at Verdun; Or the Prisoner of Peace, page 44
   Being drunk , he remembers not a tit of life before the drink came well home. It is not that he sees the past mistily; he does not see at all. He lives then only in as much of the present as the word of his master for the time being[…] 1951, Thomas Henry MacDermot, Tom Redcam, Orange Valley, and Other Poems, page 66
   Would we understand woman if we took her whole instead of tit by tit? 1988, E. C. Curtsinger, Towers, Crosses, page 236
   The one farthest from the river was the largest and tallest; they decreased in size toward the river, until the fourth was little more than a tit of rock jutting up out of the prairie. 1999, Benjamin Capps, A Woman of the People, page 78