Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Tit for tat

 Things are getting serious when it becomes tit for tat—that is, according to the online Collins English Dictionary, when one takes revenge on another person for what they have done by doing something similar to them. 

Oh yeah. Sweet revenge. 

Now, that definition ties nicely to synonyms blow for blow and eye for eye, but tit for tat seems to have wandered in from another universe...

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According to several sources, including Collins,  the phrase tit for tat popped up around 1550 and was (perhaps) a variation of an older expression: tip for tap. NPR/Michigan Radio has a nice little exploration of this phrase that you can either listen to or read at this link. Tip, it turns out, can mean "a light blow," so the equivalent exchange suggested by tip for tap is pretty clear. 

The Phrase Finder (one of my favorite online references!) offers that tip-plus-tap appears in a 1466 book of poems written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, in the line: "Strokis grete, not tippe nor tapp." But tit? and tat? Well, here's what /Michigan Radio has to say:

"Tit" comes from an old Germanic verb that could mean to strike a light blow, similar to "tip" in the expression's earlier form. The "tat" is probably just onomatopoetic. That is, it just sounds good with "tit"-- similar to "chit chat" or "flip flop."

Phrase Finder offers that John Heywood may have been the first to use tit for tat (at least, in a publication) in the parable The Spider and the Flie, 1556: "That is tit for tat in this altricacion [altercation]." 

NPR/Michigan Radio adds this trivia snippet about the phrase: The game "tic tac toe" was first called "tit tat toe." (Whaaat??) 

For more fascinating bits and bobs about tit for tat, be sure to check out the NPR and Phrase Finder links. 

Tit for tat: It's all about revenge, baby.
Image by Tumisu, please consider ☕ Thank you! 🤗 from Pixabay

**** A tip o' the hat to author Dani Greer who suggested this Slang-o-rama phrase!****

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Crack up

I recall the phrase you crack me up and variations of such from my teen years, which is why I thought it must be a recent saying. But as you know, I am more often than not wrong about such things. Thank goodness for research, idiom dictionaries, and the internet...

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Crack up actually has several slang-ish meanings, and my trusty copy of The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer runs down the list, providing "first use" dates for a couple of them. There's crack up as in to suffer an emotional breakdown (early 1900s). Then, crack up meaning to damage or wreck a vehicle or vessel and ato experience a crash (no first use dates for those two definitions). Finally we get to the phrase I'm interested in: crack someone up, meaning to "burst or cause to burst out laughing (1940).

American Slang, 2nd Edition by Robert L. Chapman with Barbara Ann Kipfer agrees with the 1940 date for crack up meaning "to have a fit of uncontrollable laughter." Interestingly, the next entry is "crack wise" from the 1920s, which means to make quick pungent, witty, and often malicious remarks. But I digress.

But wait a minute! The Online Etymology Dictionary has this to say about crack up:

The verbal phrase in the meaning "to break up laughing" is by 1967, transitive and intransitive.

Without getting too specific, 1967 is just about right for my teen years... but doesn't line up with what the other dictionaries say. Here's one more data point for you, then: Your Dictionary's page on 1940s slang lists crack up (burst out laughing). So, I think we're safe with going with the 1940s, at least. A good place to stop. 

If you find any other references, please let me know in the comments. Maybe we can push that date back even further into the past?

It's an anachronistic High Renaissance crack up!
Four Laughing People by Bartolomeo Veneto (c. 1510-30) 

**** A tip o' the hat to author Camille Minichino who suggested this Slang-o-rama phrase!****

Image by b0red from Pixabay