ditton

A motto or saying.

Noun

  1. A motto or saying.
    • Nekeb : this is a ditch, where we may conceive Jordan was let out for the more convenient watering of other ground. And have we not more then twenty Dittons or Ditch-tons on the ſame occaſion in England? - 1650, Thomas...
    • Theſe Dittons ſerve ofttimes to inſtruct us, what is the true Bearing : Thus the Earle of Glencairn’s Ditton, Fork over fork, ſhowes that his Bearing is a Fork, and not an Epiſscopal Pale, as ſome would have it :[…] -...
    • Vireſcit vulnere virtus [courage grows strong at a wound], the Motto or Ditton of Steuart Earl of Galloway, is relative to the Creſt, a Pelican vulnered feeding her Young in a Neſt proper; which Figure is an Emblem of...

Origin

Borrowed from French dicton (“saying, maxim, proverb, adage”), from Latin dictum. First attested in the late 16th century.

Forms

dittons