The twentieth letter of the English and other modern alphabets, the nineteenth of the ancient Roman alphabet, corresponding in form to the Greek Τ (tau), from the Phœnician (and ancient Semitic) † X X X (tau), in Phœnician, and originally also in Greek, the last letter of the alphabet. It represents the point-breath-stop consonant of Bell’s ‘Visible Speech,’ or surd dental mute, so called, but in English is gingival or alveolar rather than dental. Several varieties of a t-sound occur in different languages, according as the flow of the breath is stopped by bringing the tip or front of the tongue into contact with different points between the edge of the upper teeth and the roof of the palate. Thus, contact of the tip of the tongue with the teeth gives the true dental t, which is common in continental European languages, very distinct in Anglo-Irish, and heard in north-western English dialects before r, where it is often represented in dialect specimens by spelling thrue or t’hrue for true, and the like (though the consonant is not actually th or þ). The Indian languages, Aryan as well as Dravidian, distinguish two kinds of t, the dental, and the retracted or ‘cerebral’ (mūrdhanya), in Sanskrit त and ट, of which the latter is formed by contact of the retracted tip of the tongue with the roof of the palate. The English t is formed between these two extreme positions, the contact being with the back of the gum or the front margin of the palate; its sound is much closer to the cerebral than to the dental, and in the Tamil or Telugu representation of English words, the cerebral is regularly put for English t. In the Roman transliteration of Indian words it is usual to write t for the dental, and to distinguish the cerebral a ṭ, as is done in this dictionary. The Semitic languages also distinguish two t-sounds, one, the Hebrew tau (ת), Arabic ta ([Arabic]) dental; the other, Hebrew teth (ט), Arabic ṭa ([Arabic]), said to be formed by contact of the blade of the tongue with the palate; this also has been romanized as ṭ, though distinguished in Urdū from the cerebral ṭ.
In modern English, besides its proper sound as above described, t in the combinations -tion, -tious, -tial, -tia, -tian, -tience, -tient, after a vowel or any consonant except s, has the sound of sh, in which the following i is absorbed, as in nation, factious, partial, militia, patience; but in -ia, -ian, i is sometimes more or less preserved, especially in proper names, as in inertia, Portia, Gratian, Dalmatian. In these combinations Latin (t) became (ts), usually written z, and then (s), written c, in French, as in L. grātia, It. grazia, F. grâce, L. nātiōnem, It. nazione, OF., Sp. nacion. In French and English spelling the Latin t was subsequently in most cases restored, e.g., nation; but the living sound was (s), and it is this s which combining with the following i (= y consonant) as (sy-), passed in English into (ſ), in the same way as written c or s has done in gracious, Asia, emersion: see S the letter, par. 4. Strictly, therefore, what we have is not ti pronounced as (ſ), but (ſ) derived from ci, spelt ti after its Latin source. After s, the original sound of t has remained, as in bestial, Christian, Erastian, question.
A much more recent change, as yet scarcely recognized by orthoepists, is the development in southern England of the sound ch from t followed by u with its diphthongal or name sound, in such combinations as -tual, -tue, -tuous, and especially -ture, as in nature. In those English dialects in which u has not become (yū), the original t remains, as in ‘critter’ = creature, ‘pictur’ = picture.
T between s and syllabic l or n (en), as in bustle, castle, epistle, christen, fasten, hasten, is now usually mute; so between s and m in Christmas, and between f and syllabic n in often, soften.
TH is a consonantal digraph representing two simple sounds (þ, ð), for which the Roman alphabet has no simple symbols, and is thus phonetically a distinct letter (or two letters), inserted between TE- and TI-, where see its history and pronunciation.
I. 1. The letter and its sound. The plural is variously written t’s, t’s, ts (tīz). See also TEE sb.1
c. 1000. [see B].
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. pr. i. 2 (Camb. MS.). Abouen þat lettre in the heyeste bordure a grekyssh t þat singnifieth the lyf contemplatyf.
1487. Act 4 Hen. VII., c. 13. Every Person so convicted for any other Felony … to be marked with a T in the same Place of the Thumb.
1736. Ainsworth, Lat.-Eng. Dict., s.v., With a design to hang T on her own gibbet, as Lucian jocosely says.
1847. Proc. Philol. Soc., III. 45. Thus the Aztecs of Mexico, though able to pronounce an l in the middle of a word, at the commencement find it necessary to prefix a t-sound to the liquid.
1859. Thulia S. Henderson, Mem. E. Henderson, vi. 353. He had begun to study Kennicott before the little inmate of the Linn could have known ‘a T from a craw’s tae.’
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xvi. Everything producible that began with a T, from tar to toast.
b. In phrase to cross the t’s: to make the horizontal stroke of t (often omitted in hasty writing); fig. to be minutely exact or particular in one’s account; to make the meaning more distinct; to particularize and emphasize the points. Cf. to dot the i’s in I (the letter) 1.
1860. Mrs. A. T. Thomson, Wits & Beaux of Society, II. 255. Do look over it; put the dots to the i’s, and cross the t’s.
1862. Mrs. Houstoun, Recommended to Mercy, II. ix. 213. Now, please not to cross the t’s and put the dots on the i’s, and so contrive to make us both uncomfortable.
1865. E. C. Clayton, Cruel Fortune, II. 220. To ascertain whether it was … properly spelt, and had all the i’s dotted, and the t’s crossed.
1885. Dunckley, in Manch. Exam., 15 June, 6/2. To dot his i’s and cross his t’s and polish up his manuscript.
c. Phr. To a T (also to a tee): exactly, properly, to a nicety.
[The original sense of T here has not been ascertained. Suggestions that it was the tee at Curling, or at Golf, or a T square, appear on investigation to be untenable; it has also been suggested that it referred to the proper completion of a t by crossing it (see b); or that it was the initial of a word; in reference to this it is notable that to a tittle (i.e., to a prick, dot, jot) was in use nearly a century before ‘to a T,’ and in exactly the same constructions: see TITTLE.]
1693. Humours Town, 102. All the under Villages and Towns-men come to him for Redress; which he does to a T.
1700. Labour in Vain, VIII. in Harl. Misc. (1810), X. 473. Harry cajoled my inquirer, and fitted his humour to a t—.
1771. J. Giles, Poems, 155. I’ll tell you where You may be suited to a tee.
1815. Zeluca, I. 385. I proved I knew my man to a T.; for he watched for the coming of the child with the impatience of an ordealist.
1828. Life Planter Jamaica, 161. I would away to some distant parish, and satisfy myself of the justness or unjustness of my supposition, by commencing the professional gentleman, for I understand the practice to a tee.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxii. 66. The yards were squared ‘to a T’ by lifts and braces.
1856. Mrs. Stowe, Dred, ii. All these old-fashioned goings on would suit you to a T.
2. The shape of the letter; an object having the shape 𝖳. See also TEE sb.1, TAU. Also short for T beard, T iron, T rail: see 3.
a. 1619, a. 1654. [see 3 b].
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 262. Slit the Bark or Rind about an Inch long, in form of a T.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xxii. 330. Made … with a Head like a T.
1875. Sir T. Seaton, Fret-Cutting, 69. Then see whereabouts to put them through the upright part or T of the bracket.
1891. Daily News, 27 April, 2/5. Plate iron, angles, T’s, and bars for railway waggon building are in large request.
1891. Scott. Leader, 21 Sept., 3. Inquiries for old material are reviving, rails being chiefly in demand. Some holders are now asking 21 dols, for old T’s.
1893. F. Adams, New Egypt, 237. The tongue of this inverted T, i.e., the entrenchments, had been carried out some two miles.
3. attrib. (sometimes hyphened): Shaped like the letter 𝖳; having a cross piece at the top; as T bandage, bar, chain, end, fish, handle, head, hinge, iron, joint, key, pattern, piece, spot, tap, tube, wharf. Also comb., as T-formed, -headed, -shaped adjs. See also TEE sb.1, TEE-PIECE, etc.
1783. Bentley, in Med. Commun. (1784), I. 257. The canula … was left in the puncture, secured with a double *T bandage.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 84. Secured by a *T chain.
1841. Penny Cycl., XX. 465/2. The *T-formed or arrow-shaped bone [of the Saurians].
1778. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 20 April, an. 1775. A light beam of seven feet long, drawn by a *T handle, by one man, walking backwards.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 849. They are always attached … by a *T headed nail and spike. Ibid. (1844), I. 198. The inside doors should be hung with *T hinges, 18 inches long.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 126/1. The roof … is further supported and braced by strutts of *T iron and suspension rods.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 16 March, 8/1. The main cable … is always connected with the consumer’s house by means of a *T-joint, which is enclosed in a box filled with bitumen.
1895. Parkes, Health, 54. Lead *T pieces, as they are called [in water-pipes] must be used.
1860. Biog & Crit. fr. ‘The Times,’ 235. *T-shaped traps for the wheatear.
1896. Farrier’s Price List. *T taps and other tools.
1881. Tyndall, Floating-Matter of Air, III. xviii. 188. One end … of a glass *T-tube was connected with an air-pump.
b. Special Combs. (sometimes hyphened). † T beard, a beard worn in the 17th c., grown or cut in the form of a T. T branch, in piping, a right-angled joint of a small pipe to a main; a T joint. T cart, an open phaeton, so called from its ground-plan resembling the letter T. T cloth, a plain cotton cloth exported to India, China, Africa, etc., so called from the large letter T stamped on it. T rail, a railway metal or rail having a T section. T square, a square of the form of a T or rather [symbol] (with a long stem), used by mechanics and draughtsmen for drawing lines parallel, or at right angles, to each other. (See also TEE sb.1) T-totum: see TEETOTUM.
a. 1619. Fletcher, etc., Q. Corinth, IV. i. Strokes his beard, Which now he puts i’ th’ posture of a T, The Roman T, your *T beard is the fashion.
[a. 1654. J. Taylor (Water P.), Superb. Flagellum. [Beards] Some with the hammer-cut, or Roman T.]
1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, II. 24. The butler took the housekeeper a driving-tour in my *T-cart, and threw down one of my best horses.
1882. Daily News, 30 May, 3/1. Stanhope phaetons (generally called by the absurd name of T cart).
1883. F. M. Crawford, Dr. Claudius, xvi. A very gorgeous conveyance, called in America a T-cart, and resembling a mail phaeton in build.
1865. Manch. Guard., 2 March. *T cloths, 9d. and long-cloths, 6d, to 1s. per piece.
1880. Plain Hints Needlework, 72. ‘T cloths’ are lengths of 20 yards of calico, specially used as barter with native tribes in Africa.
1837. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 39/2. The pattern … is by American engineers called the inverted *T rail.
1867. Walt Whitman, To Working Men, vi. The rolling-mill, the stumpy bars of pig-iron, the strong, clean-shaped T-rail for railroads.
[1701. Moxon, Math. Instr., 19. Tee, a double Square in the form of a T.]
1785. Peacock, in Phil. Trans., LXXV. 369. A common *T square … will answer most purposes.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 76. His trace, his T square, his augers, his gouges, and his engraving tools.
II. 4. Used like the other letters of the alphabet to denote serial order: applied e.g. to the twentieth (or more usually the nineteenth) of any series, to the nineteenth sheet of a book, etc.
5. A mediæval symbol for the numeral 160, and with a stroke over it ([symbol]) for 160,000.
6. Abbreviations: for various proper names, as Thomas, Timothy, Titus, Theresa, etc.; officially stamped on a letter, = taxed, i.e., postage to be paid; in music, = tasto, tempo, tenor, tutti; in a ship’s log-book, = thunder; in Math., = time, terms, etc.
1724. Short Explic. For. Wds. in Mus. Bks. The Letter T. is often used as an Abbreviation of the Word Tutti.
1743. Emerson, Fluxions, 15. t = Number of Terms in V … Continu’d to t Terms.
1871. Tait & Steele, Dynamics of Particle (ed. 3), iii. § 80. Let P be the position of the particle at any time t. Ibid., § 86. If T be the time of descent down AC.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 12 Oct., 3/2. ‘England’ stamps these cards with a ‘T,’ an initial which, with St. Martin’s-le-Grandiose conciseness stands for ‘taxed.’
III. 7. T at the end of a word has sometimes been attached to the word following when this begins with a vowel: hence the TO, the TONE, the TOTHER; cf. also ’tis, ’twas, etc., in ’T. The final t of Saint has in several cases been popularly prefixed to the name, as in Tandrew, Tandry = St. Andrew; Tann = St. Ann, hence Tanswell; Tantolin = St. Antholin; Tooly = St. Olave; see also TANTON, TANTONY, TAWDRY.
c. 1450. Mankind, 75, in Macro Plays, 4. I gyff no force, by Sent Tanne!
1673. Hickeringill, Greg. F. Greyb., 264. Our Tantlin Lectures.
1726. F. Howgrave, Stamford, 53. The Corruption that has been made of St. Anthony into Tantony, and St. Olave into Tooly.
1872. Hardwick, Trad. Lanc., xiv. 269. Cakes baked for the lace-makers’ feasts in Buckinghamshire, in honour of St. Andrew, their patron saint, are locally termed ‘Tandry Cakes.’
1880. W. Cornw. Gloss., ’T Andrew’s dance, St. Vitus’ dance.
8. In early ME., t took the place of initial þ, th, after a word ending in a dental or s, esp. in the demonstratives the, that, this, tha, there, then, thus, etc., and the 2nd personal pronoun thou and its cases. Already in OE, þæt þe became þætte, THAT.
c. 1200. Ormin, 325. Þiss streon þatt tuss wass sibb Wiþþ preostess & wiþþ kingess. Ibid., 12760. Nu shallt tu ben nemmnedd Cefas.
a. 1240. Wohunge, in Cott. Hom., 271. Hwa is ta largere þen þu.
c. 1400. Rule St. Benet, 23. Þis sais sain benet, þat ta þat ere of elde and vnderstandis, þai sal haue þaire mesur.
