Monday, 7 March 2011

Tittle

As promised yesterday . . .

A tittle is the dot on a lower case i or j. It first appeared in the 11th century. Some languages (e.g. Irish) omit the tittle from the i.

[My mother used to use it as a term of derision if she didn't believe a story that was being told to her.  "Tittle" she would exclaim.  Haven't heard her use the term for a while now.]

1 comment:

Tony said...

I only ever heard it in combination with jot, like in the KJV Bible, but not for a long time. Probably as a result the diminishing position of the Bible. I think that it was used in the following contexts: not to alter something, by even a J or a T, as in the biblical usage or; to check every J & T.