abbreviation of it was, formerly common colloquially and in literature, now poetic or archaic, and dialectal. Cf. ’TIS, and see IT A. γ.
1552[?]. Geoffrey Chappell, A supplicacion vnto mast Camell, 15.
| Twas but blockshly y do, of one so vnbase as he, | |
| To spout with such a gemman, of so hie a peti degree. |
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 158. ’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has bin slaue to thousands.
1693. J. Byrom, Lett. to Aubrey, 15 Nov., in Lett. Eminent Persons (1813), II. I. 167. ’Twas then commonly said.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, I. 175. ’Twas a Thing to be lamented.
1859. FitzGerald, Omar, xlii. He bid me taste of it; and ’twas—the Grape!
