teat
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English
Etymology
From Middle English tete, from Old French tete (“teat”) (compare French tette), from Frankish *tittā, *tittō, from Proto-Germanic *tittaz (“teat; nipple; breast”), ultimately of expressive origin. Compare Old High German zizza ("teat"; modern German Zitze), whence also Italian zizza (“teat”).
It heavily displaced Old English titt, a cognate of the same origin, which survives as tit, but in more vulgar use. Compare Dutch tiet and German Zitze (“teat”).
Pronunciation
Noun
teat (plural teats)
- (anatomy) The projection of a mammary gland from which, on female therian mammals, milk is secreted.
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 107:
- Milk formed their chief diet, and this they were supposed to imbibe from the witch herself, from a third "teat" which had been made beneath the arm by a nip from the Devil's pincers.
- Something resembling a teat, such as a small protuberance or nozzle.
- An artificial nipple used for bottle-feeding infants.
Quotations
- 1611, The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Ezekiel 23:3:
- And they committed whordomes in Egypt, they committed whordomes in their youth: there were their brests pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginitie.
Derived terms
Translations
projection of mammary gland
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feeding bottle top
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
