Discussion Forum (Archived)
Guest
Did you ever use a tilly ticket in the bathroom?
Listen here:
Download the MP3 here (1.5MB).
To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program, or subscribe to the newsletter.
Over the years, we've answered lots of your questions about words and phrases that have to do with going to the bathroom.
We've talked about euphemisms like I have to go see a man about a horse. Or that Victorian-era locution, I'm going to go pluck a rose. Or my favorite: I'm going to visit Miss White.
We've also talked about the origin of biffy, a word for outdoor facilities. And we discussed how the word john may have become synonymous with that bathroom destination.
But recently we received an email that has me puzzled. It's from Marge in Chula Vista, California. She writes: "My brother and I have been reminiscing about our childhood, spent in an old house in New Hampshire, during World War II. My mother always called toilet paper Tilly Tickets."
She continues: "We don't have a clue where that expression came from. Our memory was that when we were out of Tilly Tickets, we used the old scratchy patterns -- the kind used for sewing."
Eeeeuw. Well, her question made me squirm, and not just at the thought of using an old McCall's pattern. I have to admit I'm stumped. "Tilly Tickets"? So I'm hoping you can help. Ever hear toilet paper called "Tilly Tickets"? If so, did you ever hear a story to explain that name? Let us know. Our email address is words@waywordradio.org.
One more thing: I want to share something I discovered while trying to find out about Tilly Tickets. You may recall that we've talked about the word lagniappe. It's a term you're more likely to hear in the Gulf States, especially in southern Louisiana. It means "a little something extra," a little freebie that a vendor tosses in. A free keychain from your mechanic, or a calendar from a realtor--those are lagniappes.
Well, it turns out that in Ireland, and parts of Newfoundland, they don't call it a lagniappe. They call it a tilly. I don't think this type of tilly has anything to do with Tilly Tickets. Just a little extra something I thought I'd toss in.
Anyway, drop us a line if you know anything about Tilly Tickets. Hope you enjoyed this little tilly.
...
If you like what you hear and learn, please consider a donation to our program. Thank you!
A tilly hole (from my experience in boy scouts)is a type of outdoor toilet. Although I have never heard the term tilly tickets. I can think of times when we would march in to camp and have a line form. I can imagine some wit observing the similarities to a line outside a theater with everyone holding their 'tilly tickets' waiting to get in. Knowing that a lot of the scout lore when I was a boy came from the soldiers of wwI and wwII, I wonder if there might be some military reference to this term.
dont know about tilly tickets but i have always wondered about the root of Lagniappe and when i heard it on the minicast, i looked it up and confirmed my suspicions. it DOES from from Quechua, as Wikipedia affirms. The word is "yapa" and it is used all the time in markets to mean something like a baker's dozen... that bit of extra you get to wrap up a sale and purchase, especially iwhen you had to bargain (or haggle) for a
price. it is also used to mean that little extra serving of cake (or meat or whatever) that your mom or grandmother dishes out to you. And "una yapita" is a small "yapa". So if you want to be polite when you
are asking the market vendor to chuck in a few more ears of corn or whatever, you can say " ¿y mi yapita?" which is like saying "and arent you gong to give me a little tiny bit more, since I am such a good
customer/easy sale/amusing tourist, etc?"
Lezak Shallat (from Santiago, Chile, where they DONT speak Quechua... need to go to Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador for that...)
Having gotten caught up in this interesting phrase, I have done some research. Although I can't find anything online, I have been asking a few people. It seems that the term tilly hole is more rare than I would have thought. It seems that the only people who have ever heard of this term are from rural areas and were boy scouts. I am re-reading some of the older materials that I have on the American Civil War (sorry guys, history major on the loose) and may have a lead. During the the Civil War, armies in the field would occasionally dig 'trench' latrines. Long trenches that would be filled back in as they were used, starting at one end and ending at the other. Knowing that most of the soldiers were farmers and would not understand sanitation on a larger scale, I suspect that the sergeants (bastions of directness in any age) would simply tell the solders to till a furrow. It would then be a small verbal slide from till to tilly and have the verb become a noun.
Hi all--
I know this is pretty late in the game to be posting a response, but I just found out about your show and have been catching up via podcast. I've never heard of Tilly Tickets, but I have heard the word "tilly" used to refer to a girl's private parts. My best friend in Middle School used this word, and as far as I could tell, her entire family did as well. It was often in the context of changing diapers (as in "she has diaper rash, so put Desitin on her tilly"). The phrase struck me as odd even then, and so I asked them where the word came from. Her grandmother said that she had learned it from HER grandmother. I had always assumed that it was just a family weird-ism, but hearing this podcast got me thinking.
Anyway, soon enough I picked up the phrase, and you can imagine the giggling mess that my friend and I were the first time we saw the name of actress Jennifer Tilly in movie credits.
Love the show,
Jess
PS
If it helps, I lived in central MA at the time, and as far as I know, this family had lived in Worcester, MA for several generations. The family, as well as the area, was predominantly Irish-Catholic.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
1 Guest(s)