chit

See also: chít and chi̍t

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪt

Etymology 1

From Middle English chitte (“a young animal, cub, whelp”), from Old English *ċytten, *ċietten, *ċitten, from Proto-West Germanic *kittīn, from Proto-Germanic *kittīną (“young animal, fawn, kid”).

Cognate with Scots chit (“chit”), Low German kitte (“young animal”), German Kitz (“fawn, kid”). See also kid.

Noun

chit (plural chits)

1. A child or babe; a young, small, or insignificant person or animal.
   • 1859, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians‎^[1], Chapter VI:

     Madam was a little chit of a woman, not five feet in her highest headdress and shoes, and Mr. Washington a great tall man of six feet two.

   • 1922, Petronius Arbiter, translated by W. C. Firebaugh, Satyricon‎^[2], Chapter 56:

     “These are returns,” I said, “quite fit
     To me, who nursed you when a chit.
     For shame, lay by this envious art;
     Is this to act a sister's part?”

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 4, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     […] he seemed to come forward from an era of sexual defiance and fighting alliances and to cast a dismissive eye over a little chit like Nick, who had never fought for anything.

2. A pert or sassy young person, especially a young woman.

Etymology 2

From Middle English *chit, *chitte, from Old English ċīþ (“germ, seed, sprout, shoot”), from Proto-Germanic *kīþą (“sprout”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵī-, *ǵey(H)- (“to divide, part, split open, sprout”).

Cognate with Middle Dutch kiede (“sprout”), dialectal German Keid (“sprout”). Doublet of chive (etymology 2) and scion.

Noun

chit (plural chits)

1. The embryonic growing bud of a plant

   Synonyms: shoot, sprout, seedling

   the chits of Indian corn or of potatoes

   • 1721, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry: Or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land, page 217:

     The Barley after it has been couched four or five days in cold Weather will sweat a little, and begin to show the Chit or Sprit at the Root-end of the Corn,

2. (obsolete) An excrescence on the body, as a wart or a pimple.

Related terms

• chat (“small potato used as fodder”)
• chine (“ravine”, originally “fissure”), chine (“to split”, obsolete, originally “sprout”)
• chive (“sliver; stamen”)
• scion

Translations

a shoot, a sprout

• Russian: росто́к (ru) m (rostók)

Verb

chit (third-person singular simple present chits, present participle chitting, simple past and past participle chitted)

1. (intransitive, British, dialect) To sprout; to shoot, as a seed or plant.
   • 1721, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry: Or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land, page 217:

     I have known it chit in seven hours after it had been thrown forth of the Cistern and within three days come enough; the Maltster being forced to stir it six, seven or eight times a day,

2. (transitive, British, dialect) To damage the outer layers of a seed such as Lupinus or Sophora to assist germination.
3. (transitive, British, dialect) To initiate sprouting of tubers, such as potatoes, by placing them in special environment, before planting into the soil.
   • 2010, Geoff Stebbings, Growing Your Own Fruit and Veg For Dummies, page 173:

     Gardeners argue among themselves about how necessary chitting is, but I stick with tradition and do chit my seed potatoes.

Derived terms

• mini-chitted

Translations

to initiate sprouting (of tubers)

• French: piquer (fr)
• Russian: прора́щивать клу́бни impf (proráščivatʹ klúbni)

Etymology 3

From chitty, from Hindi चिट्ठी (ciṭṭhī, “letter, note, written message”). Doublet of cure.

Noun

chit (plural chits)

1. (dated) A small sheet or scrap of paper with a hand-written note as a reminder or personal message.
3. (historical) A voucher or token coin used in payrolls under the truck system.

   Synonym: scrip

4. (pharmacology) A small sheet of paper on which is written a prescription to be filled; a scrip.
5. (gaming) A smaller cardboard counter generally used not to directly represent something but for another, more transient, purpose such as tracking or randomization.
   • 2005, Richard Hamblen, Teresa Michelsen, Stephen McKnight, The unofficial, updated Third Edition of the Magic Realm Rules:

     1.4.3 Also on the board, but turned face down at the beginning of the game, are chits representing treasure sites and sounds and warnings of monsters that may arrive on the map. When characters end a turn in the hex, these chits are revealed. As characters move around the board, more and more of these chits will be revealed, letting the players know where monsters and treasures are to be found.

6. (India, China) A signed voucher or memorandum of a small debt, as for food and drinks at a club.
   • 1901, Falk, by Joseph Conrad

     He just longed to get away from here and try his luck somewhere else, but for the sake of his sister he hung on and on till he ran himself into debt over his ears—I can tell you. I, myself, could show a handful of his chits for meals and drinks in my drawer.

   • 1989, Greil Marcus, “The Assault on Notre-Dame”, in Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:

     You might come in out of contempt for history—then you'd fall in love with the idea that you could make it, because history had assumed a debt that had never been paid—because, save in apparent trivial, vanishing moments, the debt had been forgotten, and even the chits had been lost.

7. (US, slang) A debt or favor owed in return for a prior loan or favor granted, especially a political favor.
   • 2003, Linda Fairstein, The Bone Vault, Scribner, page 98:

     Harry would call in a chit with some desk manager who owed him a favor.

   • 2007 May 13, Patrick Healy, “In New Role, Senator Clinton’s Strategist in Chief”, in New York Times‎^[3]:

     Bill Clinton’s connections, and his endless supply of chits, only begin to capture his singular role in his wife’s presidential candidacy, advisers and friends of the couple say. […] And he is cashing in chits for her that Mr. Gore, post-impeachment, never asked him to do.

Derived terms

• beef chit
• blood chit
• chit fund
• clean chit
• goolie chit

 

Translations

scrap of paper with a hand-written note

• Bulgarian: бележка (bg) f (beležka)
• Dutch: briefje (nl) n
• Gujarati: ચિઠ્ઠી (ciṭhṭhī)
• Ottoman Turkish: تذكره (tezkere), پوصوله (pusula)
• Polish: kartka (pl) f
• Russian: запи́ска (ru) f (zapíska)
• Telugu: చీటీ (te) (cīṭī)

voucher of small debt

• Bulgarian: разписка (bg) f (razpiska)
• Russian: долгова́я распи́ска f (dolgovája raspíska)

Etymology 4

Perhaps from specialized technical use of Etymology 2, above, “a bud; an excressence” (Hunter 1882).

Noun

chit (plural chits)

1. A small tool used in cleaving laths. Compare: froe.
   • 1734, The Builder’s Dictionary: Or, Architect’s Companion‎^[4], volume II:

     Then lastly (with their Chit) they cleave their Laths into their thicknesses, by the Quarter Grain, which is that Grain which is seen to run in strait Lines towards the Pith.

   • 1905, William Millar, Plastering, Plain and Decorative, page 90:

     This should be specially selected, cut into lengths, and split by wedges into bolts, with a dowel axe into fittings, and with a chit split into laths.

Translations

cleaving tool

• French: départoir m

Etymology 5

Euphemistic variation of shit.

Noun

chit (uncountable)

1. (US, slang, euphemistic) Shit.

Interjection

chit

1. (US, slang, euphemistic) Shit.

References

• “chit”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “chit”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
• Hunter, Robert (1882) The Encyclopædic Dictionary: A New, and Original Work of Reference to All the Words in the English Language with a Full Account of Their Origin, Meaning, Pronunciation, and Use‎^[5], Cassell, Petter, Galpin and Company

See also

• chit-chat

Anagrams

• itch, tich

Hokkien

For pronunciation and definitions of chit – see 這 (“this; these; etc.”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 這).

Iban

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃit/

Noun

chit

1. rat

Pnar

Etymology

From Proto-Pnar-Khasi-Lyngngam *ʧit (“warm”). Cognate with Khasi shit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃit/

Adjective

chit

1. hot

Romanian

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic китъ (kitŭ), from Greek κήτος (kítos). Used around the 16th century.

Noun

chit m (plural chiți) (obsolete)

1. whale, cetacean

   Synonym: balenă

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	chit	chitul		chiți	chiții
genitive-dative	chit	chitului		chiți	chiților
vocative	chitule			chiților

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French quitte, itself from Latin quiētus (and therefore a doublet of the inherited încet). The variant cfit is from German quitt.

Adjective

chit m or f or n (indeclinable)

1. Only used in chit că (“even though”) and fi chit (“be even”)

Alternative forms

• cfit

Etymology 3

Borrowed from German Kitt.

Noun

chit n (uncountable)

1. (woodworking) putty

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	chit	chitul
genitive-dative	chit	chitului
vocative	chitule

See also

• pastă