[a. Gr. τέττιξ.]
1. The cicada or tree-cricket, a homopterous winged insect: so called by the ancient Greeks, and hence in reference to Greece, Greek poets, etc. The South European species is Cicada orni.
1775. R. Chandler, Trav. Asia M. (1825), I. 343. The tettix or cicada in the day-time is extremely troublesome.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxiv. (1818), II. 402. One bard entreats the shepherds to spare the innoxious Tettix, that nightingale of the Nymphs.
1877. M. Collins, Inn of Strange Meetings, 40. Anacreon’s tettix, singing in the trees.
1900. Daily News, 13 Dec., 5/2. The much-sung ‘tettix,’ or cicada.
2. Entom. A genus of Acridiidæ, or short-horned grasshoppers, typical of the orthopterous subfamily Tettiginæ, having the pronotum horizontal and the antennæ thirteen- or fourteen-jointed. Two species are known in Britain and nine in U.S.
3. Golden tettix (Gr. χρυσοῦς τέττιξ), an ornament worn in the hair by Athenians before Solon’s time, as an emblem of their being aboriginal.
1859. Lit. Gaz., 24 Dec., 611/2. The chiton is exchanged for the modern paletot, and the golden tettix in the hair is debased to mock pearls and muslin flowers.
1874. Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, v. 135. Fastened their hair with a golden tettix.
1875. Browning, Aristoph. Apol., 441. Citizens Like Aristeides and like Miltiades Wore each a golden tettix in his hair.
