"T" Word Origins

tauten

Origin

From taut + -en.

tautological

Origin

From tautology + -ical.

tautology

Greek

From Greek tautologia, from tauto "the same" and logos "word, saying".

tavern

Latin

From Old French taverne ("wine shop"), from Latin taberna ("inn, shop") — a doublet of the word "taverna" used in some other languages.

tawaif

Origin

Borrowed from Hindustani (Hindi तवायफ़ (tavāyaf) / Urdu طَوائِف (tavāif)), in turn derived from Classical Persian طَوَائِف (tawā'if), ultimately derived from Arabic طَوائِف (ṭawāʔif).

tawdry

Origin

Shortened from "tawdry lace," originally "Saint Audrey's lace" — cheap necklaces sold to pilgrims at fairs honouring the English saint; once the fashion faded, the word came to mean "cheap and gaudy."

Tawney

Norman

Habitational surname of Norman origin, from the villages of Saint-Aubin-du-Thenney and Saint-Jean-du-Thenney, both in Normandy.

tawny

Old French

From Old French tané, the past participle of taner ("to tan hide into leather"), from tan, the bark used in the tanning process.

tax

Latin

From Latin taxare ("to assess, estimate"), via Old French taxe — a doublet of the word "task."

taxation

Latin

From Latin taxatio ("assessment, valuation"), via Anglo-Norman; by surface analysis, tax plus -ation.

taxi

Medieval Latin

Shortened from "taximeter cab" — taximeter being the fare-calculating meter, from French taximètre, itself from Medieval Latin taxa ("charge, tax").

taxicab

Origin

Shortened from "taximeter cab" — the same root as "taxi."

taxidermy

Ancient Greek

From French taxidermie, built from Ancient Greek taxis ("arrangement") and derma ("skin") — literally "the arranging of skin."

taxing

Origin

From the verb tax, plus -ing.

taxis

Ancient Greek

A learned borrowing from Ancient Greek taxis, meaning "arrangement" or "order."

taxman

Origin

A compound of tax and man.

taxonomy

Greek

From Greek taxis "arrangement, order" and -nomia "method, law", coined in the nineteenth century for biological classification.

taxpayer

Origin · 1700

A straightforward combination of tax and payer, first used in this compound sense in the 18th century.

tay

Origin

Reflects an earlier pronunciation of tea, before the vowel sound in words like "tea" and "sea" shifted in English; also the name of Scotland's longest river.

Taylor

Origin

From the occupation "tailor" — someone who cuts and sews clothing — spelled with a y instead of an i.

Taz

Origin

From the character Tasmanian Devil.

TB

English

An initialism: of tuberculosis in the medical sense, and of terabyte in the computing sense.

TBA

English

An initialism of "to be announced".

TBD

English

An initialism of "to be determined", also read as "to be decided".

TBH

English

An initialism of "to be honest".

tbsp

English

A written abbreviation of tablespoon.

Tchaikovsky

Russian

Transliteration of Russian Чайко́вский (Čajkóvskij).

tchotchke

Origin

Borrowed from Yiddish טשאַטשקע (tshatshke, “ornament; trinket; toy; (figurative) attractive girl or woman”), from a Slavic language and probably ultimately imitative of a baby’s utterances. Slavic cognates * Polish cacko (“toy; knick-knack, trinket; pretty thing”), from caca (“nice thing”), and czaczko (“(obsolete) toy; trinket; pretty thing”) * Russian ца́цка (cácka, “(informal) knick-knack, trinket; (dated) toy”), from ца́ца (cáca, “toy; trinket; well-behaved child; nice person; conceited person”) * Ukrainian ца́цка (cácka, “(dated) toy; ornament, trinket; conceited person; well-dressed person”), from ца́ца (cáca, “toy; well-behaved child; conceited person; attractive woman”)

TCS

English

An initialism, standing for Tata Consultancy Services, traction control system or Tax Collected at Source depending on context.

TD

English

An initialism: of touchdown in sport, and of the Irish Teachta Dála, 'deputy to the Dáil', in politics.

te

Origin · 1800

Adapted in the 19th century from the earlier syllable "si," changed so that no two notes of the scale began with the same letter.

te amo

Latin

Spanish and Portuguese, inherited from Latin te amo, 'I love you', through ordinary sound change rather than borrowed from it: te 'you' plus amo, the first-person present of amare, 'to love'.

tea

Dutch · 1650

Borrowed into English around the 1650s via Dutch "thee," itself from a southern Chinese (Hokkien) word for the tea plant. Countries that traded tea by sea from that region ended up with "tea"-like words, while those trading overland from northern China got "cha"-like words instead.

teach

Old English

From Old English tæcan, "to show or point out," related to an ancient root meaning "to show" — the same root gives us the word "token."

teacher

Middle English

From Middle English techere, simply "teach" plus the agent suffix "-er."

teaching

Old English

From Old English tæcung, "instruction," built from teach plus "-ing."

teacup

Origin

A simple compound of tea and cup.

teacupful

Origin

From teacup + -ful.

Teague

Irish

From the Irish first name Tadhg, once used generically (and disparagingly) by English speakers for Irish men.

teahouse

Origin

A compound of tea and house.

teak

Portuguese

Borrowed via Portuguese teca from a South Indian (Malayalam/Tamil) word for the tree.

teakwood

Origin

From teak + wood.

teal

Middle English · 1920

Originally the name of the small duck, from Middle English tele; the colour sense — describing the blue-green patch on the bird's head and wings — only appeared in the 1920s.

team

Old English

From Old English team, originally meaning offspring or a set of animals harnessed together to pull something — the sense of "a group working together" grew out of that image of animals pulling as one.

teammate

Origin

A compound of team and mate.

teamwork

Origin

A straightforward compound of team and work.

teapot

Origin

A compound of tea and pot.

tear

Old English

The verb comes from Old English teran, "to tear or rip," from an ancient root meaning to tear apart; the noun for a teardrop is actually a separate, unrelated word from Old English tear meaning a drop from the eye — the two just happen to be spelled alike.