[CHICH, chick-pea, lentil, was in 16th c. corrupted to chits, which being taken as plural, yielded a singular chit. Sense 3 is entirely doubtful, and may belong to the prec. or following word.]
† 1. = CHICH, chiches, or chick-peas. Obs.
a. pl. chits.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 90 b. Cicer, and the pulse called in latin ervum (in englishe I suppose chittes).
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 90 a. Lenticula is a poultz called chittes, whiche … I translate peason.
1570. Levins, Manip., 149/8. Chits, pulse, lenticula.
1578. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Acacia, The seede whereof is lyke to chittes.
1610. Barrough, Meth. Physick, III. xv. (1639), 124. Minister Chits wel rosted.
b. sing.
1559. Morwyng, Evonym., 267. A few seedes in the figure of chit or Lentil.
† 2. A freckle or wart. Obs. [cf. L. lentigo f. lens.]
1552. Huloet, Chyts in the face lyke vnto wartes, which is a kynde of pulse, lenticula.
a. 1677. Junius, Etymol., Chit, idem cum Freckle, Lentigo.
1755. Johnson, Chit, a freckle … Seldom used.
3. pl. Small rice.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 477. 3,243 lbs. of ‘broken’ rice. 570 [lbs.] of ‘chits’ or ‘small.’… In the Carolina mills the product is divided into ‘prime,’ ‘middling’ (broken), ‘small’ or ‘chits,’ and ‘flour’ or ‘douse.’
