Dictionary

teetotum en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

From Latin totum (“all”), marked by a T on one of the four sides.

Meanings

1. (historical) A toy (spinning top) similar to a dreidel.
   • "Are you a child or a teetotum?" the Sheep said, as she took up another pair of needles. "You'll make me giddy soon, if you go on turning round like that." 1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Wool and Water”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 104:
   • Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho/Time's teetotum/If you spin it/Gives it quotum... 1893, “First You're Born”, W. S. Gilbert (lyrics), Arthur Sullivan (music):
   • The town awakes; the great tee-totum is set up for its daily spin and whirl; […] 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Tom-all-alone’s”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 157:

Forms

teetotum en · NOUN · etymology 2

Meanings

1. (historical) A working men's club conducted under religious influences, as an alternative to drinking in the saloon.

Forms