ditton

plural dittons

1. ScotlandobsoleteA motto or saying.

   Nekeb : this is a ditch, where we may conceive Jordan was let out for the more convenient watering of other ground. And have we not more then twenty Dittons or Ditch-tons on the ſame occaſion in England?

   1650, Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof, London, page 105

   2 more examples

   Theſe Dittons ſerve ofttimes to inſtruct us, what is the true Bearing : Thus the Earle of Glencairn’s Ditton, Fork over fork, ſhowes that his Bearing is a Fork, and not an Epiſscopal Pale, as ſome would have it :[…]

   1680, George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, chapter XXXII, in Observations Upon the Laws and Customs of Nations, as to Precedency, Edinburgh, page 97

   Vireſcit vulnere virtus [courage grows strong at a wound], the Motto or Ditton of Steuart Earl of Galloway, is relative to the Creſt, a Pelican vulnered feeding her Young in a Neſt proper; which Figure is an Emblem of our Saviour: And the ſame Figure for Creſt the Steuarts Earls of Murray uſe, with the Motto, Salus per Chriſtum redemptorem [salvation through Christ the redeemer].

   c. 1722–1725, Alexander Nisbet, “Of Mottos, Cries of War, and Devices.” (chapter 6), in A System of Heraldry, Speculative and Practical: With the true Art of Blazon […], volume 2, Edinburgh: Robert Fleming, published 1742, part 4, page 21

plural Dittons

1. A placename:
   1. countableuncountableA suburb of Widnes, Halton borough, Cheshire, England (OS grid ref SJ4885).
   2. countableuncountableA village and civil parish in Tonbridge and Malling borough, Kent, England (OS grid ref TQ7158).
   3. countableuncountableA suburb of Slough, Berkshire, England (OS grid ref SU9978).
2. countableA habitational surname from Old English.