tidbit versus titbit?

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, I hold the assimilation theory to account for American "tidbit"
and the dissimilation theory to account for General-English
"titmouse." Unless, of course, it has something to do with Tommy
Tittlemouse.

-Wilson

On 10/23/07, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: tidbit versus titbit?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 8:24 AM -0400 10/23/07, Rachel Sommer wrote:
> >David Mar, an Australian, writes in the annotation to his Irregular Webcomic
>
> >(http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1731.html):
> >
> >The etymology of the word "titbit" is interesting. As best I can ascertain
>
> >>  without access to a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, the original form
> >>  was "tidbit", from the Middle English *tyd*, meaning choice or special,
> >>  and *bit*, meaning a small morsel. At some point the British converted
> >>  this to "titbit" for some reason I haven't been able to uncover
>
> to achieve the rhymed syllables, I assume, or
> "assimilation at a distance", which amounts here
> to the same result
>
> LH
>
> >, and this
> >>  spelling and pronunciation is now the most common in the UK and Commonwealth
> >>  nations. The "tidbit" spelling remains as an alternative in use in the USA,
> >>  although it seems to have been a relatively recent re-invention, appearing
> >>  in the US only as recently as the mid-19th century. It's not that the US has
> >>  *preserved* the original spelling, but that they have for some reason *gone
> >>  back to it* after an intervening couple of centuries when everyone used
> >>  "titbit".
> >>
> >>  There is some speculation that the (relatively) recent American change was
> >>  prompted by a prudish desire to sanitise the language of "rude syllables",
> >>  changing the potentially titillating (pun intended) "tit" for "tid".
> >>  However, there doesn't appear to be any solid evidence for this as the
> >>  reason.
> >>
> >
> >Anyone know why we USAians are different?
> >
> >--
> >--
> >Rachel Sommer
> >As the Italian proverb says:
> >L'aritmetica non è opinione (arithmetic is not an opinion).
> >
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> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>


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