Etymology

bitts

B3I1T1T1S1

Today it means: A frame composed of two strong oak timbers (bitt-heads) fixed vertically in the fore part of a ship, bolted to the deck beams to which are secured the cables when the ship rides to anchor Full definition →

Old Norse biti ← Proto-Germanic *bitiz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*bitiz
  2. Old Norse · derived frombiti
  3. English todaybitts

From Middle English, probably of Low German or North Germanic origin, and the English form a corruption or contraction, from Old Norse biti, probably ultimately from a variant of Proto-Germanic *bitiz. Compare Swedish beting and Danish beding.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.