BS: Definition of 'Totty'.

Subject: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 12:14 AM

On the "bread roll" thread, I mentioned en passant the colloquial use of "crumpet" to mean "females regarded as sexual objects", stating "totty" to be a synonym. Chambers Dictionary, however, defines "totty" as "sexually attractive young people collectively", so implying that it is not a sex-specific term. I believe this to be wrong, and that the word can only apply to females and is never used of young men.

Who agrees? Or has anybody ever heard it used of young males regarded from a female perspective?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Rowan
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 12:27 AM

Like "bint" and "crumpet", I've only heard "totty" applied to women, as synonyms for each other. But. while those of us in Oz know of such things, we tend to hear the terms used only by poms and usually only by poms in pommyland.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 02:41 AM

'Totty', I've only ever heard used in relation to a nice looking young woman. 'Bit of stuff' I've heard in relation to both. For my sins, I find some of the old gender slang terms out there entertaining in a kinda post-ironic way. 'Bit of fluff' 'skirt' 'bint' etc., though I can't stand blokes who use 'it'.

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 03:21 AM

Indeed, probably most used in the phrase "posh totty" to indicate upper middle class or higher attractive young women, with an implication of being kept by a relatively wealthy father.

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: MartinRyan
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 03:23 AM

So -- what's the origin of "totty"?

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 03:47 AM

Martin ~~ Chambers lists it as a derivative of 'tot' in sense of a small child; with presumably an overtone of the object being cherished as well as sexually exploited?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Lox
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 07:15 AM

Maybe in the old days ... I have heard, and hearm young women talking and joking about male totty on many occasions.

I would suggest "tot" as in a Tot of Rum, just the tonic to snap one out of ones monotony and give one a little thrill.

However, a cursory glance at the net suggests various origins, including the possibility that it was a term used to refer to prostitutes, so MtheGM's assessment may well be right.

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Lox
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 07:29 AM

typo - should read "I have heard, and hear ... etc ..."

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 08:29 AM

According to Partridge's Dictionary of Historical Slang a 'Tottie' is a high-class whore (1880s), There is a song, of course - in London Rhyming Slang.
I hope your interest is academic!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: EBarnacle
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 10:42 AM

Back in the 70's there was a play put on at South Street Seaport, "Farewell My Totty." When I asked the author what Totty meant, he said "beloved."

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Greyeyes
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 01:26 PM

The OED has "A girl or woman, esp. a 'good-time' girl.", and as a draft entry also has "Brit. slang. As a mass noun: people (esp. women) collectively regarded as objects of sexual desire."
But the earliest example of the latter is 1985, Curtis/Elton, Blackadder.

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Paul Burke
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 01:42 PM

Asymptotty- a girl you can never quite get to.

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: MartinRyan
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 03:41 PM

Nice one , Paul!

Thanks for the Partridge reference, Jim - I hadn't gotten round to checking it. I have some old slang dictionaries and will check them out. My instinct says Dutch...

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 04:53 PM

Hi Martin;
From Barrére's Dictonaty of Slang Jargon and Cant; A girl, a fast girl, a term of endearment, from English tot, anything small.
Farmer and Henley's Slang and Colloquial English: A high-class harlot; somewhat of an endearment.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Lox
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 05:02 PM

Like the word 'Gay', the word 'totty' is evolving/has evolved, and has been reclaimed by young independant women to describe handsome men.

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 08:13 AM

The song.
Jim Carroll

Tottie   (Musa Pedestris)

1 As she walked along the street
With her little plates of meat
And the summer sunshine falling on her golden Barnet Fair
Bright as angels from the skies
Were her dark blue Mutton Pies
In my East and West Dan Cupid shot a shaft and left it there.

2 She'd a Grecian I suppose
And of Hampstead Heath two rows
In her Sunny South they glistened like two pretty strings of pearls,
Down upon my bread and cheese
Did I drop and murmur 'Please
Be my storm and strife dear Tottie, O, you darlingest of girls'.

3 Then a bow wow by her side
Who 'til then had stood and tried
A Jenny Lee to banish, which was on his Jonahs Whale
Gave a hydrophobia bark,
She cried 'What a Noahs Ark'
And right through my rank and riches did my cribbage pegs assail.

4 Ere her bull dog I could stop
She had called a ginger pop
Who said 'What the Henry Meville do you think you're doing there' ?
And I heard as off I slunk,
'Why the fellow's Jumbo's Trunk'.
And the Walter Joyce was Totties with the golden Barnet Fair...

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 02:14 PM

Nothing like a nice tot at bedtime.


Frances Grose, 1785, in his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue has
Totty-headed Giddy, hare-brained.

Subject: RE: BS: Definition of 'Totty'.
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 02:16 PM

Who stole the close html?

totty-headed Giddy, hare-brained.