"T" Word Origins

Tessa

Origin

Contraction of Teresa.

Tessie

Origin

Clipping of Tesla + -ie.

test

Latin

From Old French test, "an earthen pot used for assaying metals", ultimately from Latin testum. Chemists once judged the purity of gold or silver by heating it in one of these small pots — "putting it to the test" — and the word later spread to mean checking anything for quality.

testament

Latin

From Latin testamentum, "a will", related to testis, "a witness" — the same root behind "testify" and "testimony", since a will is essentially a person's witnessed final wishes.

tester

Latin

From Old French testre, "a canopy", ultimately from Latin testura. The modern sense of "someone who tests things" is simply "test" plus the agent suffix "-er".

testicle

Latin

From Latin testiculus, a diminutive of testis, "witness" — an odd-sounding link that comes from the old Roman practice of swearing oaths while touching this part of the body as a symbol of virility.

testicular

Latin

From Latin testiculus, "testicle", with the adjective ending "-ar" added.

testify

Latin

From Old French testifier, from Latin testificari, "to bear witness", built from testis ("a witness") and facere ("to make").

testimonial

Late Latin

From Late Latin testimonialis, "relating to testimony", from testimonium, "testimony" — ultimately from testis, "a witness".

testimony

Latin

From Latin testimonium, "testimony, evidence", from testis, "a witness".

testis

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin testis.

testosterone

Origin

A blend of "testis" (the source gland), the connecting vowel "-o-", and "-sterone", a suffix used for steroid hormones — the same family that gives us "cholesterol".

testudineous

Origin

From Latin testūdin- + -eous, from oblique stem of Latin testūdō, from testa.

testy

Old French

From Middle English testif, "headstrong", from Old French testu, "stubborn" — literally "having a lot of head" (from teste, "head"). The same French root gives modern French tête.

tet

Origin

A clipped form of "tetralogy," "tetrahedron," or "tetra," depending on the field.

tetanus

Ancient Greek

From Latin tetanus, from Ancient Greek tetanos, related to teino, "to stretch" — describing how the disease pulls muscles into a rigid, locked state.

tetchy

Origin

Uncertain, first attested as teachie in the 1597 first quarto versions of Romeo and Juliet and Richard III. Perhaps coined by Shakespeare. Also variously derived from English tetch (“tantrum, fit of anger”); from Scots tache (“blotch, fault”); from Middle English tatch (“blemish”) &c. under influence from touchy.

tether

Old English

From Old English or Old Norse roots meaning "rope" or "cord", ultimately traced back to an ancient root meaning "to tie" or "to pull".

tetra

Greek

Shortened from the scientific genus name Tetragonopterus, built from Greek tetragonos, "four-sided", and pteron, "fin".

tetrad

Origin

From Ancient Greek τετράς (tetrás), analysable as tetra- + -ad.

tetraplet

Origin

Blend of tetra- (“four”) + couplet (“set of two”).

tetraskelion

Origin

Borrowed from Ancient Greek τετρασκέλιον (tetraskélion, “four-legged”).

tetration

Origin

PIE word *kʷetwóres From tetra- (prefix meaning ‘four’) + (itera)tion, from the fact that tetration is in fourth place after addition, multiplication, and exponentiation. The word was coined by the English mathematician Reuben Goodstein (1912–1985).

Tetris

Greek

Coined by its Russian creator Alexey Pajitnov by blending the Greek prefix "tetra-" (referring to the four-square pieces) with "tennis", his favourite sport.

Tetsuo

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese てつお (Tetsuo).

teuton

Origin

PIE word *tewtéh₂ Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂der. Latin Teutonēsbor. English Teuton Borrowed from Latin Teutonēs, Teutonī (“the Teutons”) (compare Ancient Greek Τεύτονες (Teútones)), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂ (“people”). First attested in the early 1700s.

teutonic

Origin

PIE word *tewtéh₂ 1580, from Latin Teutonicus, from Teutonēs, Teutonī (“the Teutons”, name of a Germanic tribe that inhabited coastal Germany and devastated Gaul between 113–101 B.C.), equivalent to Teuton + -ic.

tewel

Origin

From Middle English tuwel, from Old French tueil, tuel, tudel (“tube, pipe”) (whence modern French tuyau), from Vulgar Latin *tūta, from Frankish *thūta (“pipe”), from Proto-Germanic *þeutǭ (“pipe, channel, flow”), from *þeutaną (“to howl, roar, resound”), from Proto-Indo-European *tu-, *tutu- (“bird-cry, shriek”). Compare Spanish and Portuguese tudel, from the same Germanic source.

Tex

Ancient Greek

The letters of the name are meant to represent the capital Greek letters Τ (tau), Ε (epsilon), and Χ (chi), as TeX is an abbreviation of Ancient Greek τέχνη (tékhnē), which is also the root word of technical.

Texan

Origin

Formed from Texas plus the suffix "-an", used to describe someone or something belonging to a place.

Texas

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Texas (also spelled Tejas), from a Caddo word meaning "friend" or "ally", originally used to describe the Caddo people themselves.

texian

Origin

From Texas + -ian.

text

Latin

From Latin textus, "the style or texture of a piece of writing", literally "something woven", from texere, "to weave" — the same root gives us "texture".

textbook

Origin

A straightforward compound of "text" and "book".

textile

Latin

From Latin textilis, "woven", from texere, "to weave".

texting

Origin

Blend of text + messaging, derived from text messaging

textphone

Origin

From text + phone.

texture

Latin

From Latin textura, "a weaving, web, or structure", from texere, "to weave" — originally referring literally to woven cloth before broadening to any surface quality.

Tezuka

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 手塚 (Tezuka).

tf

English

An initialism of 'the fuck', clipped from 'what the fuck'.

tfw

English

An initialism of 'that feeling when', also read as 'that feel when'.

tgif

English

An initialism of 'thank God it's Friday'.

thacker

Origin

Variant of Thatcher.

Thackeray

Old Norse

An English habitational surname from a place in Yorkshire, of Old Norse origin, from þak (“thatch, roof”) + rá (“nook”), therefore referring to a "place with thatching".

Thad

Origin

Clipping of Thaddeus.

thaddaeus

Origin

Borrowed from Latin Thaddaeus, from Ancient Greek Θαδδαῖος (Thaddaîos), from Aramaic תַדַּי (Ṯaday).

Thaddeus

Greek

From Greek Thaddaios, of uncertain earlier origin, possibly Aramaic.

Thai

Origin

From the Thai word ไทย (tai), the name Thai people use for themselves.