Forms: 1 tetr, 1–6 teter, 4–5 tetre, 5 -yr, -ere, 6–7 -ar, 6–8 tettar, (7 teater, 9 dial. titter), 6– tetter. [OE. teter:—OTeut. *tetru-, pre-Teut. *dedru-, Skr. dadru a kind of cutaneous disease, f. dṛ to crack; cf. Lith. dedervine tetter. The simple word is not preserved elsewhere in Teut., but cf. OHG. zitaroh (:—*titruha), MHG. ziteroch, Bav. dial. zitt(e)roch, -en, Tyrol zittrich; also mod.Ger. zittermal, zitterflechte, Swiss zitterabel tetter, ringworm.]
1. A general term for any pustular herpiform eruption of the skin, as eczema, herpes, impetigo, ringworm, etc.
Crusted, pustular, running tetter, impetigo; eating t., lupus; honeycomb t., favus; humid or moist t., eczema; milky t., milk-blotch; scaly t., psoriasis.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss. (O.E.T.), 128. Basis, teter. Ibid., 502. Inpetigo, tetr. Ibid., 791. Papula vel pustula, spryng vel tetr.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (O.E.T.), 128. Balsis, teter.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xi. 71. Se ðonne hæfð teter on his lichoman se hæfð on his mode ʓitsunga.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 150. Heo ofʓenimð þone scruf & þone teter.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., xxv. 99. Teter witodlice hæfð on lichaman.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 61. Þere beeþ hoote bathes, þat wascheþ of teteres, oþer sores and scabbes.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 791/14. Hec serpedo,… a tetere.
1584. Cogan, Haven Health, xxviii. (1636), 48. For a Tettar or Ring-worme a little Mustard laid upon it within a few dayes will cure it.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 71.
| And a most instant tetter bark’d about, | |
| Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, | |
| All my smooth body. |
1622. Hakewill, David’s Vow, viii. 284. It is good … to kill a Tetter before it spread to a Ringworme.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 66. The true Oil of Cedar is admirable for curing Tetters.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, I. 125. A leprous tetter with corrosive tooth [would] Creep o’er my skin, and fasten on my flesh.
fig. 1641. Milton, Reform., I. Wks. 1851, III. 19. What a universall tetter of impurity had invenom’d every part, order, and degree of the Church.
1647, 1705. [see RINGWORM 1 b].
1693. Southerne, Maid’s last Prayer, I. i. The mercenary itch in an old woman; ’tis the very tetter of that sex.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 145. In ran the airn by chance, And lat out baith the wind and matter, That lang had lodgit in that tetter.
2. A cutaneous disease in animals, esp. horses.
1552. Huloet, Tetter for horse, herpeta.
1575. Turberv., Venerie, 227. The Tettar commeth vnto many dogs naturally or by kind or by age.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb. (1623), 119. To heale any Tetter, or drie scabbe in Goates.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4400/4. A black Gelding … a Tetter on the off Breast.
1794. Sporting Mag., III. 156. A cure for warts or letters on horses.
1819. Pantologia, Tetter, called by farriers the flying-worm, or ring-worm. It runs up and down the skin in different directions, from whence it receives its name.
