Forms: 8 T totum, 8–9 te(-)totum, tee(-)totum, 9 (erron.) te-to-tum, tee-to-tum; see also TOTUM. [Orig. T totum, formed by prefixing to L. tōum ‘all, the whole,’ its initial T, which stood for it on one of the four sides of the toy (itself in earlier use called simply a TOTUM, as in 17th c. French totum, now toton).]
1. A small four-sided disk or die having an initial letter inscribed on each of its sides, and a spindle passing down through it by which it could be twirled or spun with the fingers like a small top, the letter which lay uppermost, when it fell, deciding the fortune of the player; now, any light top (sometimes a circular disk pierced by a short peg), spun with the fingers, used as a toy.
The letters were originally the initials of Latin words, viz., T totum, A aufer, D depone, N nihil. Subsequently they were the initials of English words, T being interpreted as take-all: see quot. 1801. On the French totum or toton, the letters are T, A, D, R, meaning, according to Littré, Totum, tout, Accipe, prends, Da, donne, Rien (nothing).
1720. De Foe, Life D. Campbell (1841), 50. A very fine ivory T totum, as children call it.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina (1791), II. xxxvii. 245. And turn round like a tetotum.
1800. Sporting Mag., XV. 48. A man was lately convicted … for selling a teetotum.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., IV. iv. 341. When I was a boy the te-totum had only four sides, each of them marked with a letter; a T for lake all; an H for half, that is, of the stake; an N for nothing; and a P for put down, that is, a stake equal to that you put down at first.
1818. Moore, Fudge Fam. Paris, v. 23.
| What a time since I wrote!—I’m a sad, naughty girl— | |
| Though, like a tee-totum, I’m all in a twirl, | |
| Yet ev’n (as you wittily say) a tee-totum | |
| Between all its twirls gives a letter to note ’em. |
1893. W. S. Gilbert, Utopia, II. She’ll waltz away like a teetotum.
b. fig. (a) Sc. A very little person. (b) Something very unsteady.
1822. Galt, Sir A. Wylie, III. xxvi. 221. I didna think Miss Mary would ever tak sic a tee totum.
1860. Thackeray, Round. Papers, Week’s Holiday, 223. Who knows how long that dear teetotum happiness can be made to spin without toppling over?
2. A game of chance played with this device.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (1784), 65/1. Continue to divert ourselves at all fours, brag, cribbidge, tetotum, &c.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xiv. O’Grady gruffly broke in with ‘You’d better ask him, does he love teetotum.’
3. attrib. and Comb., whirling like the top.
1819. Metropolis, II. 97. Mrs. S—m-r’s tetotum-like turn, not without grace or activity, but with a sportive kind of oddity.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., x. 258. His own teetotum brain is upset.
Hence Teetotum, Teetotumize vbs., intr. to spin like a teetotum, to gyrate; Teetotumism (nonce-wd.), the condition of being ‘in a whirl’ like a teetotum; Teetotumwise adv., in the manner of a teetotum.
1831. Moore, Summer Fête, 556. No blither nymph *tetotumed round To Collinet’s immortal strain.
1864. Annie Thomas, Denis Donne, II. v. 159. She liked it to be taken for granted that it would be optional with her whether or not Mr Sydney Brown teetotummed about the room with another woman.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 199. If that wretch, the current … did not grab hold of the nose of my canoe, and we teetotummed.
1841. T. Noel, Rymes & Roundelays, 212. Brother bards … Ye, who … Set your brains *tetotum-izing.
1813. W. Bull, in Mem., xvi. (1864), 350. The whirligigism of your situation,—I might have said the *teetotumism, for I think your brain must very much resemble a teetotum.
1878. F. Pollock, in Mind, III. July, 399. The following is an actual short conversation, on [an infant] seeing an ivory ring spun *teetotum-wise.
1881. Daily News, 1 Feb., 5/4. The Mevliveeyeh, profanely called Dancing Dervishes, still revolve teetotum-wise.
