I love these boards. A simple enquiry turns up such wonderful facts. So better not to snuggle too close to one's beloved's hair,lest one gets poisoned. 
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Lewis Carroll certainly did:Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
The Aged Aged Man
I'll tell thee everything I can;
There's little to relate.
I saw an aged aged man,
A-sitting on a gate.
"Who are you, aged man?" I said,
"And how is it you live?"
And his answer trickled through my head
Like water through a sieve.
He said, "I look for butterflies
That sleep among the wheat:
I make them into mutton-pies,
And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men," he said,
"Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread—
A trifle; if you please."
But I was thinking of a plan
To dye one's whiskers green,
And always use so large a fan
That they could not be seen.
So, having no reply to give
To what the old man said,
I cried, "Come, tell me how you live!"
And thumped him on the head.
His accents mild took up the tale:
He said, "I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
I set it in a blaze;
And thence they make a stuff they call
Rowland's Macassar-Oil—
Yet twopence-halfpenny is all
They give me for my toil"...Comment
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None othese bowdlerising Americanisms here, surely - especially in such a thread as this.Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
If it was a typo, please accept my apologies.
jean, that's an excellent poem. Thanks for posting.Comment
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"tidbit" is neither a bowdlerization nor an Americanism; it is the earlier form, of which 'titbit' is a later corruption.
OED provides:
1640 A tyd bit, i e a speciall morsell reserved to eat at last
1701 To be always loading the table, and eating of tid-bits
1775 For fear any tid-bit should be snapped up before him, he snatches at it ... greedily
1834 The sturgeons, the finest salmons, and other tid-bits of the fishery
1735 My farce is an Oglio of tid-bits
1776 A fine girl, as I live! too nice a tid-bit for an apprenticeComment
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I'd not appreciated that polari went as far back as 1735Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
- that's right out of Round the Horne, that one 
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Well, my apologies. Thanks, I was not aware of that. I thought the word "tidbit" had been introduced to protect American sensibilities, and my dictionary rather bears that out.Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
I shall return it to Messrs Chambers forthwith for a refund.
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Pass it by scottycelt first, mangertonOriginally posted by mangerton View PostWell, my apologies. Thanks, I was not aware of that. I thought the word "tidbit" had been introduced to protect American sensibilities, and my dictionary rather bears that out.
I shall return it to Messrs Chambers forthwith for a refund.
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Watch it amateur! scotty might look you up.Originally posted by amateur51 View PostPass it by scottycelt first, mangertonComment
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... it has to be said that the etymology of the 'tid' is obscure.
In his 1727 Dictionary, Bailey says "Tid, nice, delicate, as a Tid-Bit."
Johnson in 1755 has " nice bit, nice food. Tid, adj. (tydder, Saxon), tender, soft, nice ... Titbi't (properly tidbit; tid, tender, and bit)"
However, as OED points out - the Old English word meant by Johnson is tidre, tyddre 'weak, fragile, easily broken; frail in health, infirm'; it could not give tid 'tender, soft, nice'. But the English Dialect Dictionary has from Midland counties Tid, Tidd = 'fond, attached, careful (of), solicitous (about); (of a child) tender, nice, fanciful; (of a man) cunningly reserved'. JD Robertson's Gloucester Glossary [1890] has Tid 'playful, frolicsome' and cites from John Smyth's Berkeley manuscripts c 1640 'Tyd ie wanton. Hee is very tyd, ie very wanton. A tyd bit, ie a speciall morsell reserved to eat at last'. These evidence the limited dialect use of an adjective tid, tidd, or tyd; though the senses given do not very closely agree with that deduced by Bailey from tid-bit."
... so glad you asked!
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My Pocket Oxford says 'tit-bit, a tasty morsel' - wellyes I suppose
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