tittle-tattle

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English

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Etymology

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Reduplication of tattle.

Noun

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tittle-tattle (countable and uncountable, plural tittle-tattles)

  1. (uncountable) Petty, idle gossip.
    • 1733, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], Alexander Pope, compiler, “Law is a Bottomless Pit. Or, The History of John Bull. []. The Second Part. Chapter XI.”, in Miscellanies, 2nd edition, volume II, London: [] Benjamin Motte, [], →OCLC, page 114:
      Every idle Tittle-tattle that went about, Jack was always ſuſpected for the author of it: []
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in The History of Pendennis. [], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, [], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      She has trouble enough on her hands, with the affairs of that silly young scapegrace, without being pestered by the tittle-tattle of this place. It is all an invention of that fool, Fribsby.
    • 2023 October 6, Ryan Gilbey, “The double life of Rock Hudson: ‘Let’s be frank, he was a horndog!’”, in The Guardian[1], →ISSN:
      And, when rumours about him surfaced in the form of insinuating magazine articles demanding to know why he hadn’t found a wife yet, his wily agent Henry Willson made sure that none of them stuck, even if it meant leaking tittle-tattle about other clients instead.
  2. An idle, trifling talker; a gossip.
    • 1777, The Tatler; Or, Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq, volume 4, Dublin: W. Whitestone, W. Watson, J. Williams, W. Wilson, edition of The Tatler n° 268 (1710) by Richard Steele, page 324:
      If I can once extirpate the race of solid and substantial humdrums, I hope by my wholesome and repeated advices, quickly to reduce the insignificant tittle-tattles and matter-of-fact-men that abound in every quarter of this great city.

Translations

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Verb

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tittle-tattle (third-person singular simple present tittle-tattles, present participle tittle-tattling, simple past and past participle tittle-tattled)

  1. To engage in gossip.
    • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
      ‘I hope you two have been mewed in with that old pussy long enough. While you’ve been tittle-tattling I’ve been doing, — listen to what this bobby’s got to say.’
  2. To spread gossip.