"T" Word Origins

turtle

Old French

From Old French tortüe, likely reshaped under the influence of Middle English words for the turtledove, ultimately going back to the same source as "tortoise".

turtleish

Origin

From turtle + -ish. Piecewise doublet of turtlesque.

turtlesque

Origin

From turtle + -esque. Piecewise doublet of turtleish.

Tuscan

Late Latin

From Late Latin Tuscanus, "belonging to the Tusci", the ancient people from whom the Etruscans and the region's name descend.

Tuscany

Late Latin

From Late Latin Tuscanus, "belonging to the Tusci", the ancient people whose name also gave us "Etruscan".

tush

Old English

From Old English tusc ("tusk"); the "buttocks" sense is a much later, unrelated slang development, likely a playful shortening.

tusk

Old English

From Old English tux/tusc, going back to a Proto-Germanic word meaning "canine tooth", related to "tooth" itself.

tusked

Origin

From Middle English tuskyd; equivalent to tusk + -ed.

tusklike

Origin

From tusk + -like.

tusky

Origin

From Middle English tusky, equivalent to tusk + -y.

tussle

Origin

Related to "tousle", both likely coming from an old word meaning to pull or handle roughly.

tussock

Origin

Uncertain. Likely from or related to tusk + -ock (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle High German zūsach (“thicket”), a derivative of Middle High German zūse (“lock of hair”). Compare also Scottish Gaelic dosag (“little tuft”).

tut

Origin

An imitative word, mimicking the clicking sound made with the tongue against the teeth.

Tutankhamun

Origin

From Egyptian twt-ankh-imn, meaning "Living Image of Amun", referring to the Egyptian god Amun.

tutelage

Latin

From Latin tutela, "a watching over, guardianship", from tueri, "to watch or guard".

tutelar

Origin

From Latin tūtelāris, from tūtēla (“tutelage, guardianship; dependent, client”) + -āris (suffix used to form an adjective, usually from a noun, indicating a relationship or a pertaining to).

tutelary

Origin

From Latin tūtēlārius (“guardian”), from tūtēla (“tutelage, guardianship; dependent, client”) + -ārius (suffix denoting an agent of use); analysable as tutelar + -ary.

tutor

Latin

From Latin tutor, "a watcher, protector, guardian", from tueri, "to protect" — the same root as "tuition".

tutorial

Origin

Formed from "tutor" plus the adjective ending "-ial".

tutoring

Origin

The "-ing" form of "tutor", used as a noun for the activity of teaching one-on-one.

Tutsi

Origin

Borrowed from the Rwanda-Rundi word Umututsi.

tutti

Latin

From Italian tutti, "all", ultimately from Latin totus.

tutu

French

Borrowed from French tutu, originally playful slang for the bottom, since the skirt is worn around the hips.

Tux

Origin

As clothing, a clipped form of "tuxedo". As the Linux mascot, coined from "Torvalds Unix" (after Linux creator Linus Torvalds), with a nod to the tuxedo-like markings of penguins.

Tuxedo

Origin · 1880

Named after Tuxedo Park, New York, a wealthy community where the style of jacket was popularised among American high society in the 1880s.

TW

English

In the warning sense, an initialism of 'trigger warning'.

twaddle

Origin

An alteration of twattle (1556), of unknown origin.

twain

Old English

From Old English twegen, "two" (masculine form), the same root behind the modern word "two"; it survived mainly in older or poetic English.

twang

Old English

Imitative of the sound itself, echoed in older words like Old English twengan, "to pinch".

twat

Old Norse

Origin uncertain; possibly related to an Old Norse word for a cut or clearing, though it may simply be an imitative or sound-symbolic coinage.

tweak

Old English

From Old English twiccian, "to pluck", the same root as "twitch"; the slang sense linked to methamphetamine use developed much later.

tweaker

Origin

From "tweak" plus "-er"; the drug-related sense comes from the jittery, restless behaviour associated with methamphetamine use.

twee

Origin

From a childish pronunciation of sweet. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first use in 1905 in Punch.

tweed

Origin

Likely a misreading or reshaping of the Scots word "tweel" (a type of woven cloth), possibly influenced by the name of the River Tweed in Scotland.

tweedle

Origin

Thought to be imitative of a fiddle's sound, possibly influenced by "wheedle".

tweek

Origin

An imitative coinage, echoing the brief chirping sound of the interference.

tween

Origin

A shortening of "in between."

tweenlight

Origin

From Old English twēonlēoht (“twilight”, literally “double-/doubtful-/uncertain-light”). The alternative spellings are due to a misassociation with between, erroneously interpreting tweenlight as if it were a shortening of between-light.

tweep

Origin

Blend of Twitter + peep (“person”).

tweet

Origin

Originally just the word for a bird's chirp; the social-media sense grew directly out of the name of the Twitter platform.

tweety

Origin

From tweet plus the adjective-forming suffix -y.

tweezers

Latin

From an old word "tweeze," meaning a small case for tools, which traces back through French étui ("case") to Latin — the same root that gives us the idea of something small and enclosed.

twelfth

Old English

From Old English twelfta, built from twelve plus the ordinal ending -th, matched by similar words in German (zwölfte) and other Germanic languages.

twelve

Old English

From Old English twelf, an old Germanic compound meaning roughly "two left over" after counting to ten.

twentieth

Old English

From Old English twēntigoþa, built from twenty plus the ordinal ending -th.

twenty

Old English

From Old English twēntiġ, literally "two tens," an old Germanic compound built the same way as thirty and forty.

twerk

Origin · 2013

A blend of twitch and jerk; the dance sense spread through hip-hop culture and became widely known after Miley Cyrus's 2013 performance.

twerking

English

From the verb twerk, which arose in the New Orleans bounce music scene around 1990. The word is generally taken to be a blend of twist or twitch with jerk, though the derivation is not settled.