英语词汇titmouse的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

词汇	titmouse
词源	titmouse n. small, active bird, early 14c., titmose, from tit (n.2), expressing something small, + Old English mase "titmouse," from Proto-Germanic maison (source also of Dutch mees, German meise), from adj. maisa- "little, tiny." Spelling influenced 16c. by unrelated mouse, "when mose had long been obsolete as an independent word" [OED]. The proper plural is titmouses. Entries linking to titmouse tit n.2 1540s, a word used for any small animal or object (as in compound forms such as titmouse, tomtit, etc.); also used of small horses. Similar words in related senses are found in Scandinavian (Icelandic tittr, Norwegian tita "a little bird"), but the connection and origin are obscure; perhaps, as OED suggests, the word is merely suggestive of something small. Used figuratively of persons after 1734, but earlier for "a girl or young woman" (1590s), often in deprecatory sense of "a hussy, minx." updated on February 10, 2014
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titmouse n.