"Suit to a t-y-t" (and similiar)

[Dan Goncharoff]

Could it be derived from a Spanish phrase, with the "y" representing an
"and"?

DanG


On Sun, Nov 4, 2012 at 2:36 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Suit to a t-y-t" (and similiar)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "to your taste"?
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________________
> Jonathan Lighter wrote, Sunday, November 04, 2012 1:11 PM:
>
> FWIW, this is all news to me.
>
> I've never encountered "to a T Y T" anywhere.
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Nov 4, 2012 at 1:00 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake <
> b.taylorblake at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      "Suit to a t-y-t" (and similiar)
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Several weeks ago, I had wondered about the appearance of the following
> in
> > a 1916 issue of a Kentucky newspaper [1],
> >
> > "In your last week's editorial you sure did give them the whole six yards
> > and it did suit us to a T.Y."
> >
> > After a while I concluded that the last part must've been a play on "suit
> > to a T" combined with a "thank you."
> >
> > But apparently not.  (The following examples were easy enough to find in
> > Google Books.)
> >
> > ----------------------------
> >
> > 1) "How do you like her?" he says to me; Says I, "She suits, to a
> > 't-y-*Tee*'!" [From James Whitcomb Riley, "Tradin' Joe," 1893.]
> >
> > 2) "That'll shoot me to a T-Y-tee, Mrs. McGlaggerty." [From John J.
> > Jenning's _Widow Magoogin_, 1900.]
> >
> > 3) "That suits me to a tyt.  Waiter, two large gin fizzes, please.  Tell
> > the man they are for adults."  [From Press Woodruff, "A Successful
> > Failure," in _A Bundle of Sunshine; An Avalanche of Mirth_, 1901.]
> >
> > ----------------------------
> >
> > Further,
> >
> > 4) Gallup gives my ideas to a "t-y-t."  [From J.W.D. Camp's comment to
> the
> > editor, *Gleanings in Bee Culture*, June 1882.]
> >
> > 5) Gee whiz those new cards fit the vest-pocket to a T-Y-T.  Have you got
> > yours?  [From *The Railroad Telegrapher*, January, 1908.]
> >
> > 6) Mr. Graham:  That is not responsive to the question / Mr. Burch:  I
> will
> > try to follow, to a t-y-t.  [From testimony during congressional hearings
> > on the White Earth Reservation, 2 February, 1912.]
> >
> > 7) I herewith enclose my vote on political discussions in our Journal.
> >  Jas. P. Gainer of lodge 213 has expressed my sentiments in our last
> issue
> > to a T.Y.T.  [From I.O. Garris's letter to the editor in *The Railway
> > Carmen's Journal*, January, 1913.]
> >
> > 8) I asked him to describe Joe Dillon to me.  He did so, and did it to a
> > "tyt." [From William H. Ryus, _The Second William Penn:  A True Account
> of
> > Incidents that Happened along the Old Santa Fe Trail in the Sixties_,
> > 1913.]
> >
> > 9) Why, I can sit around and figure out a proposition to a T.Y.T., but I
> > might as well try to eat with my feet as to get up before a gathering and
> > tell them what I think.  [From W.C. Smith, "Thinking Standing Up," *The
> > Associated Grower*, April, 1921.]
> >
> > 10) "That's 'Honeyface' to a TYT," he called back.  [From Roger L.
> Welsch,
> > _Mister, You Got Yourself a Horse:  Tales of Old-Time Horse Trading_,
> 1987.
> >  The anecdote this chapter is based on was collected in 1940; the action
> > described here was to have taken place in 1898.]
> >
> > ----------------------------
> >
> > I must be missing something obvious or something that's been written
> about
> > before.  Is "tyt" (and similar) a reference to "tittle"?  Why the variant
> > forms, especially those expressed as initialisms?  (And now I wonder why
> > the example that got me started on this lacked the terminal "t.")
> >
> > -- Bonnie
> >
> > [1]
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1210B&L=ADS-L&P=R3924
> >
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