ditto

English

WOTD – 9 June 2007

Etymology

First attested in 1625. From regional Italian ditto, variant of detto, past participle of dire (“to say”), from Latin dīcō (“I say, I speak”). Not related to English dittography or Italian dito (“finger”).

The specific meaning of making copies of paper comes from ditto machine, the brand name of a spirit duplicator.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪtəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪtoʊ/, [ˈdɪɾoʊ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtəʊ

Noun

ditto (plural dittos or dittoes)

1. That which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 127:

     [...] they entered a dismal-looking parlour, whose brick-red walls and ditto curtains were scantily lighted by a single lamp, though it was of the last new patent— […]

   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Comprising a Brief Description of the Company at the Peacock Assembled; and a Tale Told by a Bagman”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 134:

     […] a spacious table in the centre, and a variety of smaller dittos in the corners: […]

   • 1967, Star Trek, The Alternative Factor, season 1, episode 27, DeForest Kelley (actor):

     Well say he's got the constitution of a dinosaur, recuperative powers ditto. And as we both know, I'm a bright young medic with a miraculous touch. Well why then, when I returned, there wasn't a trace of that wound on his forehead. Not even a bruise. It was like he had never been injured.

   • 2008 May 22, “New 'Indiana' film whips up plenty of thrills”, in Hudson (MA) MetroWest Daily News:

     The opening shot of "Crystal Skull" shows the playful side of director Steven Spielberg, who seems to have a weak spot for cute animals. See "AI Artificial Intelligence" for Exhibit A. Ditto for executive producer George Lucas. See "Return of the Jedi" for Exhibit B.

   • 2009 July 3, “Andy Murray: easy to admire, but can we learn to love him?”, in Times Online:

     He has created for himself a honed, primed-for-victory body and is working hard on a ditto mind.

2. (US, informal) A duplicate or copy of a document, particularly one created by a spirit duplicator.

   Please run off twenty-four dittos of this assignment, for my students.

   • 2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Jonathan Cape, page 227:

     Mr. Zappadia gave each student a ditto of a black-and-white cow.

3. (by extension) A copy; an imitation.
   • 1991, N. Romano-Benner with S. Murphy, “Convoking the muses of Cuenca”, in Americas, volume 43, number 1, page 6:

     "You've got to look good to feel good," she announces, a ditto of television slogans.

   • 2003 November 9, “Argenta appears unfazed”, in Herald & Review:

     Last year, Argenta-Oreana blanked the Chiefs 23-0 in a second-round game Dee-Mack coach Jim McDonald said was "pretty much a ditto" of what transpired Saturday.

   • 2009 May 6, “Brunswick school hopes to be model for uniforms”, in Myrtle Beach Sun News:

     The intent of the policy, she said, is "not to put everybody in a ditto environment," where all are expected to look and act exactly like all others.

4. The ditto mark, 〃; a symbol, represented by two apostrophes, inverted commas, or quotation marks (" "), indicating that the item preceding is to be repeated.

   Synonyms: (abbreviation, dated) do., (abbreviation, rare) do

5. (historical, in the plural) A suit of clothes of the same colour throughout.
6. (education, uncommon) Synonym of worksheet (“a sheet of paper or computerized document”)

Derived terms

• dittohead
• dittology
• ditto suit
• ditto worksheet
• suit of dittoes

 

Translations

the aforesaid

• Bulgarian: същото (bg) (sǎštoto), горното (bg) (gornoto)
• Czech: detto (cs)
• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} dito (nl), ^{(please verify)} idem (nl), ^{(please verify)} idem dito (nl), ^{(please verify)} dito dito, d:o (abbreviation)
• Finnish: edelläsanottu, yllämainittu, ylläoleva (fi)
• French: idem (fr), dito (fr)
• German: dito (de)
• Hebrew: אותו דבר
• Hungarian: dettó (hu), úgyszintén (hu)
• Italian: detto (it), predetto (it), idem (it), come sopra, soprascritto (it), idem come sopra
• Polish: jak wyżej, to samo (pl)
• Portuguese: dito (pt), de acordo (pt), idem (pt)
• Russian: то же самое (ru) (to že samoje)
• Slovak: detto, taktiež
• Spanish: ídem (es)
• Swedish: dito (sv), d:o (abbreviation)
• Vietnamese: như trên, nt (vi)

informal: duplicate

• Bulgarian: копие (bg) n (kopie)
• Dutch: kopietje (nl) n
• Finnish: kopsu (fi)
• French: copie (fr) f
• German: Dublikat n, Kopie (de) f
• Hungarian: másolat (hu)
• Italian: fac-simile
• Russian: ко́пия (ru) f (kópija)
• Swedish: kopia (sv) c
• Turkish: kopya (tr)

ditto mark

• Czech: detto (cs)
• Dutch: herhalingsteken n
• Finnish: lainausmerkki (fi), toistomerkki
• German: Unterführungszeichen (de) n
• Greek: ομοιωματικά (el) n pl (omoiomatiká)
• Hungarian: macskaköröm (hu)
• Portuguese: idem (pt) m
• Spanish: signo de ídem m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} dito (fr)
• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} dsa., ^{(please verify)} dan samadengan atas
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} idem (it)
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 同上 (ja) (dōjō)

Adverb

ditto (not comparable)

1. As said before, likewise.
   • 2004 January 15, “Smash and grab”, in The Economist‎^[1]:

     The inflationary effect of injecting $1 billion into the economy could be dire; ditto the impact on the tumbling bolivar of treating foreign reserves as if they were the government's piggy-bank.

   • March 11 2022, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     Some of the players were concerned about what the future held for them – given that one of the measures involved Chelsea not being able to operate in the transfer market or offer new contracts. Ditto many members of staff.

Translations

likewise — see likewise

Verb

ditto (third-person singular simple present dittos, present participle dittoing, simple past and past participle dittoed)

1. (transitive) To repeat the aforesaid, the earlier action etc.

   Synonyms: ape, echo

   • 1989, K. K. N. Kurup, Agrarian struggles in Kerala:

     The Communists believed that Prakasam, the Prime Minister, never tried to check the bureaucracy but dittoed every action of the corrupt officials and police.

2. (US) To make a copy using a ditto machine.
   • 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 3, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 55:

     But they were all purple, Dittoed—worn, torn, stained with coffee.

   • 1976 April 26, Jil Clark, Julia Penelope, Susan Wolfe, “The Politics of Language”, in Gay Community News, page 8:

     I was going to join a commune of my friends. I sort of issued a declaration of independence which I dittoed up and put in everybody's mail box in the department.

Translations

(transitive) To repeat the aforesaid, the earlier action etc

• Bulgarian: повтарям (bg) (povtarjam)
• Italian: idem (it)
• Russian: повторя́ть (ru) (povtorjátʹ)

Interjection

ditto

1. Used as an expression of agreement with what another person has said, or to indicate that what they have said equally applies to the person being addressed.

   I'm really busy today! —Ditto!

   • 1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Tweedledum and Tweedledee”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 82:

     "Besides, if I'm only a sort of thing in his dream, what are you, I should like to know?" "Ditto," said Tweedledum. "Ditto, ditto!" cried Tweedledee.

Dutch

Adjective

ditto (not comparable)

1. Dated spelling of dito.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From older Italian ditto. Doublet of diktum.

Adverb

ditto

1. ditto

Interjection

ditto

1. ditto

Portuguese

Noun

ditto m (plural dittos)

1. Obsolete spelling of dito.

Adjective

ditto (feminine ditta, masculine plural dittos, feminine plural dittas)

1. Obsolete spelling of dito.

Verb

ditto

1. Obsolete spelling of dito.