The word 'teeny' - anything to do with 'teen'? According to my exhaustive research (I am goddamn exhausted), not in the least.
So 'teen' comes (I think) from 'ten' - via Germanic or Norse languages. Like, in German, 'thirteen' is dreizehn (literally, 'three ten'). And I assumed that 'teeny' and/or 'teensy' derived from '-teen'.
Not so!
Teeny comes from an alteration of 'tiny' (duh!), modified to resemble the long-e of 'wee'. And teensy is a further modification of 'teeny'.
Now, back to teen. Fascinatingly enough, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary, "teenager is from 1941 (the earlier word for this was teener, attested in Anmer.Eng. from 1894). Teen-aged (adj.) is from 1952; shortened form teen is from 1951 (though this had been used as a noun to mean "teen-aged person" in 1818)."
Lastly, to address the asterisk in this post's title. In the course of researching this post, I came across the following web page - Teeny Nymph. This is the winner of my annual "Not A Porn Site, Although by All Accounts It Should Be" Award.
What type of fly-fishing lure is this? Well, "Teeny Nymphs are simple shrimp-like flies that are constructed entirely of cock Ring Neck Pheasant tail fibers." That's right. Made out of cock ring.
Huzzah.
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1 comment:
Quote "the long-e of 'wee'".
Is the long-e the sound of relief if you have had to wait a long time?
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