Word Origin & History
chitterlings
1221, cheterlingis "entrails, souse," origins obscure, but probably from O.E. and having something to do with entrails (related to O.E. cwið "womb;" cf. Ger. Kutteln "guts, bowels, tripe, chitterlings"). Variants chitlins (1845) and chitlings (1880) both also had a sense of "shreds, tatters."