teetotum
English
[edit]
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Latin totum (“all”), marked by a T on one of the four sides.
Noun
[edit]teetotum (plural teetotums)
- (historical) A toy (spinning top) similar to a dreidel.
- 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 14, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
- The town awakes; the great tee-totum is set up for its daily spin and whirl
- 1872, Lewis Caroll, “Wool and Water”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, page 104:
- "Are you a child or a teetotum?" the Sheep said, as she took up another pair of needles. "You'll make me giddy soon, if you go on turning round like that."
- 1893, “First You're Born”, W. S. Gilbert (lyrics), Arthur Sullivan (music):
- Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho/Time's teetotum/If you spin it/Gives it quotum...
Etymology 2
[edit]Noun
[edit]teetotum (plural teetotums)
- (historical) A working men's club conducted under religious influences, as an alternative to drinking in the saloon.
