dit
The spoken representation of a dot in radio and telegraph Morse code.
Adjective
- Indicator of a declared surname originating from Canadian French.
Origin
From French dit (“called”). Doublet of ditto.
Related
Noun obsolete, rare
- A ditty, a little melody.
- No bird, but did her shrill notes sweetly sing; / No song but did containe a louely dit: / Trees, braunches, birds, and songs were framed fit [...]. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene....
- A word; a decree.
Origin
Variant of dite.
Forms
Noun Entry 3
- The spoken representation of a dot in radio and telegraph Morse code.
Origin
Imitative.
Forms
Related
Noun computing, engineering
- decimal digit
Origin
Shortening.
Forms
Derived
Verb
- To stop up; block (an opening); close (compare Scots dit).
- To close up.
- that I would haue thought my sincere plainnesse in that first part vpon that subiect, should haue ditted the mouth of the most enuious Momus - 1599, James VI and I, Basilikon Doron:
Origin
From Middle English ditten, dütten, from Old English dyttan (“to stop up, close”), from Proto-West Germanic *duttijan, from Proto-Germanic *duttijaną, from *duttaz (“wisp”), akin to Icelandic dytta. Related to Old English dott (“dot, point”). More at dot.