Obs. Also 5 tyn, 5–7 tyne. [Appears as adj. and sb. about or soon after 1400; origin unknown: see Note below, and TINY a.]
A. adj. Very small, diminutive: = TINY a.
App. always preceded by little: cf. Sc. little wee (bairn).
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 507. Scho had layd in his lape a litill tyne egg.
c. 1450[?]. Song, ii., in Two Cov. Corpus Chr. Plays (E.E.T.S.), 32. Lully, lulla, thow littell tine child, By by, lully lullay, thow littell tyne child.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xii. 467. Hayll, lytyll tyn mop, rewarder of mede!… Hayll, lytyll mylk sop! hayll, dauid sede!
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. i. 29. A ioynt of Mution, and any pretty little tine Kickshawes. Ibid., V. iii. 60. Welcome my little tyne theefe. Ibid. (1605), Lear, III. ii. 74. He that has and a little tyne wit.
B. sb. or quasi-sb. A very little space, time, or amount; a very little; ‘a bit.’
App. always prec. by little: cf. similar Sc. use of wee: Barbour, Bruce, VII. 182 The kyng than wynkit a little wee.
c. 1420. (?) Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 1063. He was constreynyd … A lytyll tyne abak to make a bew retret. Ibid., 1283. A lyttyll tyne hys ey castyng hym besyde.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 505. Sir, I pray you a lytyll tyne stande backe.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov., I. xi. Wks. (1562), D ij. For when prouander prickt them a little tyne. Ibid. (1556), Spider & F., lx. C c iv b. But stey a litle tine [rhyme fine].
[Note. In the absence of evidence, the etymology of tine, its accidence, and its relation to TINY, have received a good deal of discussion: see Wedgwood, Dict. Eng. Etym. (1872), 684; Skeat, Notes on Eng. Etymol., 300; E. Weekley, in Trans. Philol. Soc., 1909. Prof. Skeat inclines to take tine as a later shortening of *tiné, afterwards tiny, and *tiné as a sb., possibly a. OF. tinée ‘tubful.’ But though it is possible that tine was orig. a sb., in sense ‘bit,’ the evidence is that it was always a monosyllable. Prof. Weekley suggests the possibility of tine, tiné, tiny being aphetic for OF. un tantin or tantinet ‘a little time or quantity,’ related to L. tantillus ‘so small, so little.’ This would suit the sense, but evidence connecting the forms has not been found (cf. TINY a.).]
