Word of the Day

Monday, July 12, 1999

tittle-tattle

\TIT-uhl TAT-uhl\ , noun;

Idle, trifling talk; empty prattle.

An idle, trifling talker; a gossip.

verb:

to talk idly; to prate.

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Quotes:

The literary tittle-tattle of the age.

-- Edinburgh Review, , 1820

It is better even to have a useless hobby than to be a tittle-tattler and a busybody.

-- Samuel Smiles, Life and Labour

The stir aroused by this latest piece of tittle-tattle quickly faded away, as if congealed under the icy wind of endless nights.

-- Andrei Makine, Once Upon the River Love [Translated by Geoffrey Strachan]

Take care on your part, Friar Ange,' replied the philosopher, 'and as you're afraid of the devil, don't offend him too much and do not excite him against you by inconsiderate tittle-tattle.

-- Anatole France, The Romance of the Queen Pédauque

Origin:

Tittle-tattle is a varied reduplication of tattle, which derives from Medieval Dutch tatelen, to babble.