Forms: 4 titil, -el, 5 ty-, titylle, -tille, titelle, 5–9 title, 6 tittil, -yl, tytle, tyttle, 6– tittle. [ME. titel, -il, orig. the same word as TITLE, but with a special sense developed in late L. and Romanic (see below), and retaining the short i of L. titulus. The spelling tittle is found 1535; title is occasional after 1600.
For the mediæval and Romanic senses of L. titulus akin to Eng. tittle, cf. a. 1286 Balbi, Catholicon, ‘Titulus etiam dicitur nota quæ causa brevitatis apponitur dictionibus’; also a. 800, Corpus Chr. L. & Ags. Gloss. (Hessels 1890) E 242 Epigramma, titulum; 243 Epigramma, abreuiata scriptura; a. 1200, Neckam, De Utensilibus (Wright, Vocab., 1857, 117), Glosa enim per subbrevitatem et compendiosam per apices [Fr. gloss titles] scribi debet. Diez also cites Sp. tilde, Cat. titlla, Pg. til, ‘little stroke, accent, esp. the mark over ñ,’ also Wallachian titlę, ‘the circumflex,’ and Prov. titule, ‘the dot over i,’ as representatives of the L. word in the modern Romanic langs. As apex was used by the Latin grammarians for the accent or mark over a long vowel, titulus and apex became to some extent synonymous; hence Wyclif’s use of titil, titel, to render L. apex.]
1. A small stroke or point in writing or printing.
a. Orig. rendering L. apex ‘point, tip,’ applied in classical L. to any minute point or part of a letter, also to the mark over a long vowel, as á, later also to a line indicating an abbreviation. More recently applied also to the Spanish tilde or circumflex over ñ, formerly to the cedilla under ç. By extension, any stroke or tick with a pen.
The literal notion of a point of a letter passed over to that of the smallest point of that which was written or prescribed. This took place already in late Heb. with the word qōts, lit. ‘thorn, prick,’ represented in Greek by καραία ‘horn, projecting point,’ and in L. by apex, in Wyclif translated titil: see the quots.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. v. 18. Til heuen and erthe passe, oon i [gloss that is leste lettre], or titil [1388 o lettir or o titel; Vulg. apex], shal nat passe fro the lawe, til alle thingis be don. Ibid., Luke xvi. 17. Forsothe it is liȝter heuene and erthe to passe ouer, than o titil [Tindale (1526), Geneva, 1611 title; Tind. (1534), Great tytle; Coverd. tittle (Matt. v. 18 tyttle), Rheims tittle] falle fro the lawe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 494/2. Tytylle, titulus, apex.
1483. Cath. Angl., 389/2. A Tytille (A. Titylle), titulus, apex, epigrama.
1570. Levins, Manip., 124/15. A Tittil, apex.
1636. Jackson, Creed, VIII. xxvii. § 3. The words … answered punctually and identically to every apex or title of S. Matthew’s quotation or paraphrase.
1648. Gage, West Ind., 216. This letter ç, or c with a tittle under it, is pronounced like s.
1712. F. T., Meth. Short-Hand, 4. I in the beginning of a Word is express’d by a small Tittle or touch of the Pen.
1911. W. Caven, in Fundamentals, IV. 61. ‘Tittle,’ literally little horn or apex, designates the little lines or projections by which Hebrew letters, similar in other respects, differ from each other.
b. The dot over the letter i; a punctuation mark; a diacritic point over a letter; any one of the Hebrew and Arabic vowel-points and accents; also, a pip on dice.
1538. Elyot, Punctus, seu punctum, a poynte or tytle.
1552. Huloet, Tytle or prycke in letters, punctus.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1568), 64 b/1. Canicula, is the litle blacke title in the dyse,… as sise, sinke, catre, trey.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 121. The smallest black spot or tittle of Ink.
1666. Tillotson, Rule Faith, II. v. Wks. 1742, IV. 648. The transcribing … of such myriads of words, single letters and tittles or stops.
1676. Moxon, Print Lett., 28. The Stem and Tittle of this j is made like i.
1783. Mrs. Delany, in Life & Corr., Ser. II. (1862), III. 151. Ye person said, ‘ye Dk [of Marlborough] puts no tittles upon the i’s.’ ‘O,’ says ye Prince [Eugene], ‘it saves his Grace’s ink.’
1785. Trusler, Mod. Times, III. 92. Only take care to put the tittles to your i’s, and the crosses to your t’s.
1888. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, II. 43. [He knows] his jots and his titles (the vowel points in their skeleton writing), and he knows nothing else.
† c. A name for the (usually) three dots (...), following the letters and contractions, in the alphabet on horn-books, where it is usually followed by Est Amen; so that tittle est Amen came to be used for ‘the end or conclusion.’ Obs.
(See cuts 166–168 in Tuer, Hist. Horn-book, II.)
a. 1548. Hall, Chron. Rich. III., 35. I then … began to dispute with my selfe, little considerynge that thus my earnest was turned euen to a tittyl not so good as, estamen.
1594. Nashe, Terrors Night, Wks. (Grosart), III. 251. This is the Tittle est amen of it. Ibid. (1596), Saffron Walden, G iv b. A per se, con per se, tittle, est, Amen!… why he comes vppon thee (man) with a whole Horn-booke.
1602. How a Man may chuse gd. Wife, III. i. E ij b. In processe of time I came to & [printed e] percee, and com perce, and tittle; and then I got to a, e, i, o, u.
1630. T. Johnson, New Bk. New Conceits, A v. In old time they vsed three prickes at the latter end of the Crosse row,… which they caused children to call tittle, tittle, tittle: signifying that as there were three pricks, and those three made but one stop, euen so there were three Persons, and yet but one God.
† d. A dot-like anther in a flower. Obs. rare.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. xlv. 203. There hange also sixe smal thrommes, or short threds, with litle titles or pointed notes, like as in the Lillies.
2. fig. The smallest or a very small part of something; a minute amount. Often in phrase jot or tittle (from sense 1 a): see JOT sb.1
[Cf. 1382 in 1 a.]
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 34. So is no man worþi to mak a letter or title of his to go by vnfillid.
1555. W. Watreman, Fardle Facions, App. 314. I neither wille penne any thyng other wise … ne adde … any title of myne owne.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 41. Images crept into the Churche by title and litle.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict., I. xxxvi. Thy love? he hath no title to a tittle.
1730. T. Boston, Mem., x. (ed. Morrison), 303. This makes me to account the better of these titles of the law, as divine.
1820. Scott, Lett. to Ld. Montagu, 22 Feb., in Lockhart. I owe much more to his father’s memory than ever I can pay a tittle of.
1884. F. Temple, Relat. Relig. & Sci., i. (1885), 9. Every tittle of the evidence is valued both by the judge and jury according to its agreement or disagreement with what we believe to be the laws of Nature.
b. To a tittle, with minute exactness, to the smallest particular, to a T.
1607. Beaumont, Woman Hater, III. iii. I’ll quote him to a tittle.
1700. Bp. Patrick, Comm. Deut., xxviii. 53. This was fulfilled to a tittle by Vespasian and his son Titus.
1805. Fessenden, Democr. (1806), II. 81. That I might suit them to a tittle, Have stretch’d the truth—and lied a little.
1855. Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi, 26. He’s Judas to a tittle, that man is!
Hence † Tittled a. Obs. rare, marked by tittles or vowel-points; having the Semitic vowel-points inserted, pointed: cf. POINT v.1 3 c.
1684. N. S., Crit. Enq. Edit. Bible, iv. 28. There is none of them that make use of Tittl’d Vowels.
