Titipu

The fact that the first edition of the OED doesn't list the sense of "breast" for "tit" doesn't, of course, mean it wasn't used that way -- these were, after all, Victorians writing the dictionary and choosing the books (and later periodicals) and the senses found in those books. They did not avoid altogether what they called "vulgar" words, however. For example, "prick" (as penis) is in the OED (as "low" usage), marked as dating back to 1592. And "piss" (The OED says, "Not now in polite use.") is illustrated with an example from circa 1290.

It is of value to look at the other senses of "tit" that were current. The first sense the OED lists for "tit" is "One blow or stroke in return for another; ... retaliation." We still retain this usage in "tit for tat," one blow for another. Under this first sense are listed several variations on the meaning of "blow," with usage dating from 1556 up to years contemporary with the dictionary itself.

The second group of senses forms around the idea of "tit" as a diminutive or under-sized horse, person (especially girl), mouse or bird (among which see "tit-willow," below). For the person, the word seems mostly to have been used against girls or young women, as a derogatory term, especially a girl or woman, as the OED puts it, "of a loose character, a hussy, a minx."

(The third group of senses has to do with pulling or tugging, especially with force or with sudden force. Usages for this sense go back to the 1300s and continue, though apparently not particularly frequently, up to the time the dictionary was written.)

tit-willow

I can find no evidence that there is a bird called a "tit-willow," though I find various birds, mostly from the genus Parus and family Paridae, like titlark, titling, titmouse, tomtit, bearded tit, and hill-tit.

Some people believe that the "tit-willow," rather than being a patent fabrication Ko-Ko uses to enlist Katisha's sympathies, must be a real bird, and they find in it an American quail which they believe Sullivan must have heard on his trip to America in the early 1880s. If this is so, then the worm is inexact, as quail don't eat worms. No bird, obviously, could have "cold perspiration bespangl[ing] his brow," so it is all just nonsense, anyway, since Ko-Ko clearly expects Katisha to identify him with the bird.

Martyn Green (Green 442 n. 99) associates the song "Willow, Tit-Willow" with Nicholas Rowe's 17th-century poem:

This discussion is based on the definition of the word tit in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which requires a little explanation.

To Act I or Act II of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

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(c) Copyright 1998 Sharon Cogdill, dramaturg for this production and author of this website.

College of Fine Arts and Humanities

St. Cloud State University

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Last update: 16 May 1998.