On the QT

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Oh, hello. This is Nancy from Madison, Wisconsin.

Hello, Nancy. How are you?

I’m good, thanks.

I’m calling to ask about the expression QT on the QT. I heard it in a movie, the movie L.A. Confidential, which was set in like the 40s, I believe. So I was wondering where that expression came from.

Huh. And you’re spelling that QT rather than C-U-T-I-E?

Yes, exactly. Just the two letters.

Okay. QT. Well, how did you know how it was spelled if you only heard it?

Oh, I guess that was a guess. Because I was just guessing that. He said, hush, hush, on the QT.

Oh, did he say on the strict QT or just on the QT?

On the QT. On the QT. I ask because on the strict QT used to be a common variant of it.

Would you believe that this goes back to at least the 1870s?

No.

No, I didn’t know that.

Yeah, it’s got quite a history to it. And its origins, of course, as is often the case, are obscured in mystery. We do know that it appeared first in the name of some dance hall songs. I’ve looked hard for those to try to find them and pull them out and see if there’s any clue in the lyrics. But I’ve only been able to come across lists of these songs, and it’s in the title. And then it starts to appear in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic, both in London and in New York, and spreads outward from there. And it’s got quite a life as a slang term.

The origins of it probably are really simple. It’s probably just simply the word quiet with the vowels in the middle removed. Just quiet, QT, on the quiet, quiet, QT. You know, you could see how maybe somebody who was fooling around with the language might come up with that. It’s nothing really complex.

So it’s not initials for something else then.

It isn’t. You know, I used to think that it was. I first thought for some reason this was on the quick tip. I think I’d heard something about this being a horse racing term, but I’m pretty sure that I’m wrong on that.

Huh. On the QT means surreptitious, secret, confidential. It’s something that you’re trying to keep quiet. Hush, hush.

I can’t think of any other words or expressions like that that were formed by dropping out the middle of a word like that.

I don’t know of many either. You know what’s further interesting about this, Nancy, is that this is an initialism. Know, two letters kind of making up a word, they don’t really stand for separate words. And so they’re not strictly an initialism like ABC or CBS or NBC or anything like that. But they are, at this point in history in the 1870s, incredibly rare. They don’t really become common until the 1920s. And so it’s very kind of amazing that this one should stand out so much. I mean, OK has an older history than QT, but it too is pretty rare for being a long lasting initialism.

Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s really neat. Interesting.

Yeah, well, I appreciate the chance to ask you about this.

All right. Well, thank you for calling us.

Okay.

Yeah, thank you.

All right, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you have a question about language, give us a call. The number’s 1-877-929-9673, or you can email us. That address is words@waywordradio.org.