siditty, saditty (1963), siddity (1965)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>I wonder if siditty started life as just a play on the word "city?"  Someone
>comparing snooty city people with their less sophisticated country cousins.

Mought could be, maybe with a frivolous infix, like somebody might make
"city" > "cizity" more recently (there are a few Google examples of this
"cizity").

I see four words with similar application, in approximately the same
milieu. Can we etymologize any of them?

"Dicty"/"dickty".

DARE speculates < Scots "dicht" (= "dight"). Hard to see the exact
evolution ... but note the Scots expression "dichty water English" meaning
"the affected speech of a Scot trying to sound English" ("Concise Scots
Dictionary").

"Hinkty"/"hincty".

It has been speculated to be from "henk"/"hink" = "hesitation". But one
might also consider a connection with 'obsolete' Scots "hichty" =
"haughty". I see the form "hicty" once at N'archive (1929): just a typo.?
One might also ask whether there was ever "hichty-dichty" or so (cf.
"hoity-toity") to explain both "hincty" and "dicty".

"Siditty"/etc.

Can it be derived from the same etymon as "dicty"? If one can assume a
Scots adjective "dichty" I suppose one can postulate "sae dichty" = "so
dichty" too ( as in "Dinna be sae dichty!").

"Arnchy".

Here's one for the dialectologist, maybe. At a naive glance one might take
"arnchy" to refer to that affected person who says "aren't you" [rather
than (I suppose) "ain't you"]: is this believable?

-- Doug Wilson