int., sb., a. dial. Forms: 6– tisty-tosty, 6 tistitostie, 9 teesty-tosty. [In sense 1 perh. a mere ejaculation. In sense 3 it has been compared with † tyte tust(e or † tussemose a nosegay: see TUZZY-MUZZY; but current dialect use associates it rather with toss, and tost, tossed.]
† 1. int. as an ejaculation of triumph or exultation.
1568. Fulwel, Like Will to Like, C iij. Hey tisty tosty an owle is a bird.
c. 1570. Marr. Wit & Science, IV. iv. E j. Mother must I haue his Cote, now mother must [I]? Chal [= I shall] be a liuely lad, with hey tistye tosty.
† 2. sb. A swaggering or blustering fellow (? one who uses the ejaculation). Also attrib. or adj. Obs.
1598. Florio, Sbrauo, a swash-buckler, a swaggrer, a hackster, a cutter, a tistitostie. Ibid., Squassa pennacchio,… a tisti-tostie-fellow, a swaggrer.
3. sb. A bunch of flowers, a nosegay (obs.); in mod. dial., a cowslip-ball; also tisty-tosty ball.
1825. Jennings, W. Country Gloss., Teesty-tosty, the blossoms of cowslips collected together, tied in a globular form, and used to toss to and fro for an amusement called teesty-tosty.… Sometimes called simply a tosty.
1865. Cornh. Mag., July, 41. ‘Blossom-ball’ … is evidently formed after the West-country ‘cowslip-ball,’ the ‘tisty-tosty ball’ of Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, which children yearly make.
b. attrib. or adj. Round like a cowslip-ball; plump and comely.
1888. T. Hardy, Wessex Tales (1889), 35. She’s a rosy-cheeked, tisty-tosty little body enough.
