different between tottle vs tattle

English

Etymology 1

Compare toddle and totter.

Verb

tottle (third-person singular simple present tottles, present participle tottling, simple past and past participle tottled)

1. (colloquial, intransitive) To walk in a wavering, unsteady manner.
   • 1870, Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery

     I should not, however, so much mind if this folly [of giving children poetic names] were comprised in that domain of cold gentility, to which affectation usually confines itself. One does not regard seeing Miss Arabella seated at the piano, or her little sister Leonora tottling across the carpet to show her new pink shoes. That is in the usual course of events.

Etymology 2

From total.

Verb

tottle (third-person singular simple present tottles, present participle tottling, simple past and past participle tottled)

1. (archaic, dialect) To add up; to sum to a total.
   • 1902, Bram Stoker, The Mystery of the Sea (page 38)

     It may be that the days o' fine follow ane anither fast; or that the foul times linger likewise. But in the end, the figures of fine and foul tottle up, in accord wi' their ordered sum.

See also

• tot
• tot up

References

• 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

English

Etymology

From Middle Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to babble, chatter”), originally imitative. The word is cognate with Low German tateln, täteln (“to cackle, gabble”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?tæt(?)l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?tætl?/, /-?l?/
• Hyphenation: tat?tle

Verb

tattle (third-person singular simple present tattles, present participle tattling, simple past and past participle tattled)

1. (intransitive) To chatter; to gossip.
3. (intransitive, Canada, US, derogatory) Often said of children: to report incriminating information about another person, or a person's wrongdoing; to tell on somebody. [from late 15th c.]
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.

Synonyms

• (to chatter): see Thesaurus:prattle
• (to report incriminating information or wrongdoing): see Thesaurus:rat out

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

tattle (countable and uncountable, plural tattles)

1. (countable) A tattletale.
2. (countable, Canada, US, derogatory) Often said of children: a piece of incriminating information or an account of wrongdoing that is said about another person.
3. (uncountable) Idle talk; gossip; (countable) an instance of such talk or gossip.

Synonyms

• (tattletale): telltale tit; see Thesaurus:informant or Thesaurus:gossiper
• (idle talk): see Thesaurus:tattle or Thesaurus:chatter

Translations

See also

• snitches get stitches
• twattle

References

Further reading

• gossip on Wikipedia.Wikipedia