subs. phr. (? nonce word).—See quot.
1676. [SOUTHEY, The Doctor (1834) xciv.]. A TATTLE-DE-MOY, reader, was ‘a newfashioned thing’ in the year of our Lord 1676, ‘much like a saraband, only it had in it more of conceit and of humour….’ Thomas Mace invented it … and he called it a TATTLE-DE-MOY ‘because it tattles, and seems to speak those very words or syllables.’
