nitty
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From nit + -y. The “foolish, inane” adjective sense is from nit (“fool, nitwit”), possibly under the influence of nutty (“crazy, mad”).
The origin of the noun sense (“dope fiend, druggie”) is unknown, but could refer to a person who is under the influence of drugs to the extent that he or she is careless about personal hygiene and unkempt. Compare the verb nit (“to be a nitty”).
Base: nit
Affixes: -y
Inflected forms:
form: nittier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more nitty
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: nittiest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most nitty
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: nittie
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: nitties
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Full of nits.
pos: adj
tags: also
archaic
figuratively
examples: About mid-night do I walke, and for the trickes I play they call me Pach. When I find a slut asleepe, I smuch her face if it be cleane; but if it be durty, I wash it in the next pisse-pot that I can finde: the balls I use to wash such sluts withal is a sows pancake or a pilgrimes salve. Those that I find with their heads nitty and scabby, for want of combing, I am their barbers, and cut their hayre as close as an apes tayle; or else clap so much pitch on it, that they must cut it off themselves to their great shame.
Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: […]
Rich people haue the world at will, / Trades fade, but Lawiers flourish still, / Iacke would be married unto Gyll; / but care will kill a Cat. / Are you there, Sirrah, with your beares? / A Barbers shop with the nittie haires, / Doll, Phillis hath lost both her eares / for coozning.
Sure thy father was ſome botcher, and thy hungry tongue bit off theſe ſhreds of complaints, to patch up the elbows of thy nitty eloquence.
Next night, therefore, these nittie haxters intend with strong hand to breake his glass-window's, or at dead-time of night to pull downe his signe: and so ends their faire quarrel.
It is a very difficult thing to make a good yarn of nitty [cotton] stock. The nits will stick to the cotton to quite an extent anyway, in spite of all the efforts made to prevent it. A few years ago we had some very nitty stock and we got the best results by running the beaters so as to give about 40 blows per inch of stock delivered on our plain two bladed beaters.
Super-lice are bad news for most of us, but not for nit clinics, which are fast expanding. […] Then it is time for phase two, which involves a heat treatment, blasting hot air at my skull to dehydrate the eggs and eradicate the remaining offenders. This machine, rather like a high-tech salon hairdryer, is at times slightly scalding but not more painful than using a pair of hair straighteners. Finally, any nitty survivors are meticulously combed out, strand by strand.
gloss: Foolish, inane.
pos: adj
tags: UK
slang
examples: Stephen Colbert went overtime to get into the “nitty crazy” of President Donald Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, noting that, he was shaken to his core, but “at 54, there’s not a lot of core left.”
gloss: A dope fiend, a druggie.
pos: noun
tags: Multicultural-London-English
slang
examples: See me breeze in a cream Bentley / Fronting in the sun that’s two-seated / Believe it, pull up to the light and now you looking defeated / Girl, grilling my ice got you heated (yeah) / Yep, beef with the nitty I never needed (wha-wha)
Trapping ain't dead, the nitty still clucking and ringing my phone / Chilling with bro, talking ’bout money, dough to the dome
I got some nitties on this phone / They ring me consistently / I know the ops hate this face / wanna make me #history
And I am whipping off raw, that’s messy / The nitties them call that celly
Derived words: nittily
nittiness
Translations: