tout

See also: toût

English

WOTD – 22 January 2009

Etymology 1

From a dialectal form of toot (“to stick out; project; peer out; peep”), itself from Middle English toten, from Old English tōtian (“to peep out; look; pry; spectate”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /taʊt/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /tʌʊt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊt

Noun

tout (plural touts)

1. Someone advertising for customers in an aggressive way.

   Be careful of the ticket touts outside the arena, they are famed for selling counterfeits.

   • 1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima.

     Paul Muniment looked at his young friend a moment. 'Do you want to know what he is? He's a tout.'

     'A tout? What do you mean?'

     'Well, a cat's-paw, if you like better.'

     Hyacinth stared. 'For whom, pray?'

     'Or a fisherman, if you like better still. I give you your choice of comparisons. I made them up as we came along in the hansom. He throws his nets and hauls in the little fishes—the pretty little shining, wriggling fishes. They are all for her; she swallows, 'em down.'

2. A person, at a racecourse, who offers supposedly inside information on which horse is likely to win.
   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Hocussing of Cigarette‎^[1]:

     No one, however, would have anything to do with him, as Mr. Keeson's orders in those respects were very strict ; he had often threatened any one of his employés with instant dismissal if he found him in company with one of these touts.

3. (colloquial, archaic) A spy for a smuggler, thief, or similar.
4. (colloquial) An informer in the Irish Republican Army.
   • 2011, Hugh Jordan, Milestones in Murder: Defining Moments in Ulster's Terror War:

     The Derry Brigade of the IRA thought it had got rid of its informer problem when earlier that year it executed Paddy Flood as a tout, after holding him for six weeks.

Synonyms

• (one advertising aggressively for customers): barker, pitchman, spruiker

Derived terms

• ticket tout

Translations

someone advertising for customers in an aggressive way

• French: racoleur (fr) m, vendeur ambulant m, rabatteur (fr) m, pronostiqueur (fr) m
• German: (US) Drogenvermittler m, (US) Drogenvermittlerin f, (UK) Kartenschwarzhändler m, (UK) Kartenschwarzhändlerin f, Schlepperin f, Marktschreier (de) m
• Indonesian: calo (id)

• Italian: strillone (it) m, imbonitore (it) m
• Swedish: biljettförsäljare (illegal), kundvärvare
• Turkish: arsız satıcı (tr), çığırtkan (tr), karaborsacı (tr), tahminci (tr)

Verb

tout (third-person singular simple present touts, present participle touting, simple past and past participle touted)

1. (transitive) To flaunt, to publicize/publicise; to boast or brag; to promote.

   Mary has been touted as a potential succesor to the current COE.

   • 2016 January 25, "Why Arabs would regret a toothless Chinese dragon," The National (retrieved 25 January 2016):

     China has touted its policy of non-interference for decades.

   • 2012, Scott Tobias, The Hunger Games, The A.V. Club

     For the 75 years since a district rebellion was put down, The Games have existed as an assertion of the Capital’s power, a winner-take-all contest that touts heroism and sacrifice—participants are called “tributes”— while pitting the districts against each other.

   • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎^[2], page 9:

     Newspaper articles also were generally positive in tone, although a tendency towards sensationalism means that the spread of hybrid forms is occasionally touted as the universal language of the future.

2. (obsolete) To look upon or watch.
   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, X, lvi:

     Nor durst Orcanes view the Soldan's face, / But still upon the floor did pore and tout.

3. (Britain, slang, horse-racing, transitive) To spy out information about (a horse, a racing stable, etc.).
4. (US, slang, horse-racing, transitive) To give a tip on (a racehorse) to a person, with the expectation of sharing in any winnings.
5. (Britain, slang, horse-racing, intransitive) To spy out the movements of racehorses at their trials, or to get by stealth or other improper means the secrets of the stable, for betting purposes.
6. (US, slang, horse-racing, intransitive) To act as a tout; to give a tip on a racehorse.
7. (intransitive) To look for, try to obtain; used with for.
   • March 1, 2016, Ben Judah on BBC Business Daily:

     To understand the new London, I lived it. I slept rough with Roma beggars and touted for work with Baltic laborers on the kerb.

Synonyms

• pimp
• pitch
• promote
• spruik

Translations

To flaunt, to publicize/publicise; to boast or brag; to promote

• Dutch: klanten lokken scharrelen (nl), verhandelen (nl), sjacheren (nl), werven (nl),
• Finnish: kehua (fi), ylistää (fi), mainostaa (fi)
• French: racoler (fr)
• German: aufdringlich ankündigen (de), werben (de) für
• Indonesian: menawari, menawarkan, membujuk
• Italian: pubblicizzare (it), propagandare (it), sbandierare (it)

• Romanian: racola (ro)
• Russian: навязывать (ru) (navjazyvatʹ), расхваливать (ru) (rasxvalivatʹ)
• Spanish: presumir (es)
• Swedish: pracka (på ngn en vara)
• Turkish: çığırtkanlık etmek (tr), tiyo vermek (tr), müşteri toplamak (tr)
• Vietnamese: công bố (vi)

Etymology 2

Probably from French tout (“all”).

Noun

tout

1. (card games) In the game of solo, a proposal to win all eight tricks.

See also

• tout court

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French

Etymology

From Middle French tout, from Old French tot, from Latin tōtus (via regional Vulgar Latin tottus with emphatic-expressive gemination); compare Catalan tot, Italian tutto, Portuguese todo, Romanian tot, Spanish todo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tu/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

tout m (plural touts)

1. whole, entirety, total

Adjective

tout (feminine singular toute, masculine plural tous, feminine plural toutes)

1. all

Pronoun

tout ? (plural tous)

1. everything

Derived terms

• comme tout

Adverb

tout

1. all

Further reading

• “tout” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Haitian Creole

Etymology

From French tout (“all”).

Adjective

tout

1. all

Adverb

tout

1. all
2. every

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Middle French

Etymology

From Old French tot.

Adjective

tout m (feminine singular toute, masculine plural tous, feminine plural toutes)

1. all; all of

   toute la nuit

   all (of the) night

Adverb

tout (feminine singular toute, masculine plural tous, feminine plural toutes)

1. all (intensifier)
   • 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 45:

     Et moult y avoit de gens tout autour pour regarder la iustice de la damoiselle

     And there were many people all around to watch the justice afforded to the lady

2. completely; totally; entirely

Usage notes

• Like Modern French tout, when used as an intensifier it may inflect according to the gender and the number of what it is describing:

  Elle est toute morte ― she is completely dead

• The uninflected form tout is always used for describing terms that don't inflect with gender, such as verbs, adverbs and prepositions:

  y avoit de gens tout autour ― there were people all around

  (tout qualifies the preposition autour)

Descendants

• French: tout

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Norman

Etymology

From Old French tot, from Latin tōtus.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

Adjective

tout m

1. (Jersey, Guernsey) all

Derived terms

• èrtithe-tout (“lumber-room”)
• homme à tout faithe (“jack of all trades”)
• laîsse-tout-faithe (“neglectful person”)
• tout à ièrs (“all eyes”)
• toute-êpice (“allspice”)
• tout-s'mêle (“busybody”)

 

Adverb

tout

1. (Jersey, Guernsey) all

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Scots

Verb

tout

1. (intransitive) To pout.

Noun

tout (plural touts)

1. A fit of sulking; a pet.
2. A sudden illness.

Derived terms

• toutie