Etymology

teat

T1E1A1T1

Today it means: The projection of a mammary gland from which, on female therian mammals, milk is secreted. Full definition →

Middle English tete ← Old French tete ← Frankish *tittā
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

teat · noun1

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*tittaz“teat; nipple; breast”
  2. Frankish · derived from*tittā
  3. Old French · derived fromtete“teat”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromtete
  5. English todayteat

From Middle English tete, from Old French tete (“teat”) (compare French tette), from Frankish *tittā, *tittō, from Proto-Germanic *tittaz (“teat; nipple; breast”), ultimately of expressive origin. Compare Old High German zizza ("teat"; modern German Zitze), whence also Italian zizza (“teat”). It heavily displaced Old English titt, a cognate of the same origin, which survives as tit, but in more vulgar use. Compare Dutch tiet and German Zitze (“teat”).

Teat · proper noun2

  1. German · derived fromThiet
  2. English todayTeat

Probably an Americanized spelling of German Thiet, itself a variant of Thiede.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.