The expression “to a T” comes from a shortening of tittle, a word meaning a little of something. The word tittle even shows up in the bible. There’s also an idiom “to the teeth,” as in dressed to the teeth, or fully armored-up. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “To a “T” vs. To the Teeth”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Rikki from Walnut Creek.
Hi, Rikki. Walnut Creek, California, I guess.
Yes, yes, California.
Hi, Rikki.
Welcome to the show. What’s up?
I am calling because I was in the middle of a discussion with my friend a while ago, and my friend said something along the lines of, oh my gosh, that person fit the description to the teeth.
Now, I know there’s an expression called to the teeth, and I have a feeling my ears were just playing games with me because I can’t imagine he said to the teeth and he says he didn’t.
But it still brought up the question, where does to the teeth come from?
To the teeth, like the things in your mouth, the white hard things.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I have never heard to the teeth.
I know about to the teeth, but I’m still curious to know about where to the teeth came from.
Yeah, yeah.
There are a couple of those expressions in English.
To the teeth means completely.
Like if you’re armed to the teeth, you’re armed all the way up to your teeth or entrenched to the teeth.
Oh, so it is to the teeth.
Okay, great.
That’s a different thing, though.
That’s about being prepared.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, actually your instinct is correct.
It is to a T.
To a T rather than to the T.
Yeah, to a T.
It’s usually with the capital letter T.
And we’re not sure of the origin, but I would say our best guess is that it’s a shortening of the English word tittle, which means a little bit of something.
Yeah, yeah.
Tittle is like the tiniest thing, like a dot on an eye, something like that.
And a T is even tinier than a tittle.
It is?
Well, it is because it’s just one letter of the whole word.
Yeah.
It’s the first letter of the word.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, to a tittle.
I don’t think I ever even heard that word before, so I learned more than I was bargaining for.
Well, the tittle, most people know it in the expression jot and tittle.
I’ll have a jot and tittle of the boats or something like that.
Yeah, which actually goes…
Did you say jot and tittle?
Yeah, jot, J-O-T, which related to the Greek letter iota.
Yeah, jot is.
Wow.
Yeah, which is absolutely tiny in ancient Greek.
It goes under the vowel often, and it’s just, it looks like a speck, like a little flea.
How interesting.
But yeah, yeah, in the Greek New Testament, Matthew 5, 18, it talks about one jot or one tittle.
So it’s something really, really, really tiny.
Wow, it does.
It uses the word tittle.
Yeah.
In King James.
King James, yes, sir.
I like that word, tittle.
And I wouldn’t have known that.
I’m Jewish.
I know the Old Testament.
Right.
So are you going to switch to saying to a tittle instead of to a T?
I might just.
Yeah.
Why not?
Why not?
Start conversations or stop them.
Take care now.
Yes, yes.
Thanks so much.
Good talking to you.
Bye now.
One jot of tittle, a jot and a tittle of something.
It’s just a little bit of something.
Teeny, teeny, teeny, minute, microscopic.
But it’s too armed to the teeth or it fits me to a teeth.
A teeth.
Got to get those articles right.
Right.
And no relation to T-shirts, those came much later, 1920s.
No, centuries later.
Yeah.
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