Word For The Day: TITIVATE

2000 Most Challenging and Obscure Words | June 1, 2016 | Norman Schur

[Louis Foxwell]

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In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".

Titivate

[TIT uh vate]

hear it pronounced

verb

Titivate is colloquial for "spruce up, smarten up, put on the finishing touches"; sometimes written Tittivate.

Titivateis an earlier form, given rise, despite its initial short i, to a supposed derivation from tidy, plus the -vate from elevate, resulting in tidy up, or the -vate from cultivate, according to some authorities.

Somehow all this seems unlikely. A wholly distinct meaning, "titillate," which comes fro Latin titilatus, must have been the result of confusion, a powerful influence in etymology.

In any event, do not confuse titivate with titubate meaning "to stumble, or stagger, or totter," from Latin titubare (to stagger)whose noun is titubation, a medical term for unsteadiness, especially when caused by a nervous disease.

There is another tit word that has to do with the way one moves: tittup , that means, as a noun, "moving in an exaggerated bouncy way," like a frisky horse, and, as a verb, to move in that way, supposedly derived, via tit (a dialectical term for "twitch"), from Middle English tittle, plus -up, taken from the op of gallop.

Maybe.

In any case, all these tit words have nothing to do with the tit or titty that means "teat," or the tit you get for tat if you are lucky.

[Louis Foxwell]

This is hopeless. But well worth repeating.

[Louis Foxwell]

I call hopeless.

Bath house Barrrry

[Louis Foxwell]

My dad who was in the Navy would say after dinner, “Girls, titivate the galley.”

Your Dad was a man of letters. Many received from home.

[Louis Foxwell]

I over an Arkansas redneck woman talking about Hitlery she was saying; “That ‘ole sow just won’t titivate.”

There is no level on which I am capable of understanding the comment, but - Sherriff Clark is gonna git you.

[SoothingDave]

Well, we’re all trying to get a look at all of them to prove they aren’t all the same, too.

[Louis Foxwell]

Ode from TrailerTrashBob . . . April 27, 2005

A bonafide keeper.

[Louis Foxwell]

At work now, titilwait til later....We wait with bated breath.

[MoochPooch]

This probably titivates all the negative publicity toward her:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3435743/posts

They say that with a divorce there are 3 sides to the story — his, hers, and the real. Although some of her charges might be valid, I have no sympathy for her.

I do not at all condone spousal abuse. However, someone calculating knows what she is getting into.

[lulu16]

Louis, you are so kind to give me this award. When I see my Dad, I know he will be very pleased. He is/ was (ret.) a proud Navy man. After the Americans liberated the Philippines, he could not wait to enlist (he was still under-aged at the time.)

Thank-you for a positive and enriching series on expanding the use and dispersion of our great language. You make this site worthwhile.