tit [OE] Few words in English have such snigger-inducing contrasts in meaning. In the name for small songbirds, tit is probably of Scandinavian origin and related to Icelandic titlingur ‘sparrow’. It first appeared in English in the Middle Ages in the longer equivalent titmouse, though mice had nothing to do with it—the second element was originally mose, which also meant ‘tit’. It changed to mouse in the 16th century, probably because of the bird’s small size and quick movements. In Old English a tit was a teat or nipple—it is from the same root as teat [ME]. In modern English it is a term for a woman’s breast, a use which was in Old English but which had died out in the Middle Ages, then reappeared in the USA in the mid 19th century. Since the 1960s British tits and bums and American tits and ass have suggested crudely sexual images of women. As a name for a foolish person, used since the 19th century, tit may be the same word, or it may have evolved from *twit. Another tit [M16th], now only regional, was a word meaning ‘a light tap’, which survives in the expression tit for tat, where ‘tat’ may be a variant of *tap.