titterとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

First attested in the 1610s. Probably from 中期英語 *titeren, *titren (attested in 中期英語 titering (“hesitation, vacillation”)), probably a frequentative of 中期英語 titten (“to waver”), related to Old Norse titra (“to shake, shiver, quiver”), dialectal Swedish tittra (“to snicker”).

動詞

titter (third-person singular simple present titters, present participle tittering, simple past and past participle tittered)

1. To laugh or giggle in a somewhat subdued or restrained way, as from nervousness or poorly-suppressed amusement.
   • 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn Part First: The Sicilian's Tale - King Robert of Sicily

     A group of tittering pages ran before.

   • 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 70:

     "Thou coxy, cackling candle!" said Catweazle. "Why dost thou titter?"

   • 1997, Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; republished New York: Vintage Books, 1998, →ISBN, page 363:

     Nor had the joke been a vulgar one: it was the kind of elegant pleasantry that the minister of foreign affairs might have told the crown prince at a garden party a generation ago, causing the surrounding listeners to titter with delight.

2. (obsolete) To teeter; to seesaw.

同意語

• snicker; see also Thesaurus:laugh

派生語

名詞

titter (plural titters)

1. A nervous or somewhat repressed giggle.
   • April 21, 1811, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk

     There was a titter of […] delight on his countenance.

派生語

語源 2

tit +‎ -er.

名詞

titter (plural titters)

1. (slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A woman's breast.
   • 1995 February 21, Agent_69 [username], “big breast video list”, in alt.sex.breast‎ (Usenet):

     Flesh Gordon 2 - I remember that this one was chock full of big titters. Many of them looked like the natural variety, as well.

   • 1999 March 13, MrMalo [username], “Re: State Capitals”, in alt.jokes.limericks‎ (Usenet):

     there was an old lady from raleigh
     who was so doggone nasty by golly
     just squeezin her titters
     you'd pick up some critters
     and bathe twice in one month for your folly

   • 2013, Dorothy St. James, Oak and Dagger‎, Berkley Prime Crime, →ISBN:

     “The poor dear, even her titters are weighted down with melancholy,” Pearle said to Mable.
     “I don't know what you're talking about. Her titters look perky enough to me,” Mable replied.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:titter.
2. (slang, obsolete) A girl or young woman.
   • 1900, Parliamentary Debates (page 2973)

     David […] was a man peculiarly after God's own heart, had plenty of wives, and, when he got old and shaky, and there were doubts about his virility, the prophet of the Lord told him to go and get a young "titter" — a capable young woman — to test him, and see if the fires of his passion had gone out, and to keep him warm if they had. There is the Bible for you.

同意語

• (a woman's breast): See also Thesaurus:breasts.

参照

• (girl): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary