Chapter Tironian Sign to Toads of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Tironian Sign to Toads

Tironian Sign (The). The symbol (&) for “and” or the Latin et. Said to have been invented by Tullius Tiro, Cicero's freed-man. (See Marks In Grammar .)

Tiryns An ancient city of Argolis in Greece, famous for its Cyclopean architecture. The “Gallery of Tiryns” is the oldest and noblest structure of the heroic ages. It is mentioned by Homer, and still exists.

Tirynthian Swain Hercules is so called by Spenser, but he is more frequently styled the Tirynthian Hero, because he generally resided at Tiryns, a town of Argolis.

Tit A horse.

“They scorned the coach, they scorned the rails,
Two spanking tits with streaming tails.”
The End of All Things.

“What spurres need now for an untamed titt.”
Barnefield: Affectionate Shepherd (1594).

Tit for Tat J. Bellenden Ker says this is the Dutch “Dit vor dat ” (this for that), “Quid pro quo. ” Heywood uses the phrase “tat for tat,” perhaps the French phrase, “tant pour tant. ”

Titan The sun, so called by Ovid and Virgil.

“And fleckëd Darkness like a drunkard reels
From forth Day's path and Titan's flery wheels.”
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3.

   The Titans. The children of Heaven and Earth, who, instigated by their mother, deposed their father, and liberated from Tartaros their brothers the Hundred-handed giants, and the Cyclopes. (Classic mythology.

Titan's War with Jove (The). The Titans set their brother Cronos on the throne of heaven: and Zeus [Zuce ] tried to dethrone him. The contest lasted ten years, when Zeus became the conqueror and hurled the Titans into hell.
    This must not be confounded with the war of the giants, which was a revolt against Zeus, and was soon put down by the help of the other gods and the aid of Hercules. (See Giants.)

Titania Wife of O'beron, king of the fairies. According to the belief in Shakespeare's age, fairies were the same as the classic nymphs, the attendants of Diana. The queen of the fairies was therefore Diana herself, called Titania by Ovid (Metamorphoses, iii. 173). (Keightley: Fairy Mythology.)

Tithonus A beautiful Trojan beloved by Aurora. He begged the goddess to grant him immortality, which request the goddess granted; but as he had forgotten to ask for youth and vigour he soon grew old, infirm, and ugly. When life became insupportable he prayed Aurora to remove him from the world; this, however, she could not do, but she changed him into a grasshopper. Synonym for “an old man.”

“An idle scene Tithonus acted
When to a grasshopper contracted.”
Prior: The Turtle and Sparrows.

“Thinner than Tithonus was
Before he faded into air.”
Tales of Miletus, ii.

Titi (Prince). Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son of George II. Seward, a contemporary, tells us that Prince Frederick was a great reader of French memoirs, and that he himself wrote memoirs of his contemporaries under the pseudonym of “Prince Titi.”
   There was a political fairy tale by St. Hyacinathe (1684-1740) called the History of Prince Titi. Ralph also wrote a History of Prince Titi. These histories are manifestly covert reflections on George II. and his belongings.

Titian [Tiziano Vecellio ]. An Italian landscape painter, celebrated for the fine effects of his clouds. (1477- 1576.)

“Not Titian's pencil e'er could so array,
So fleece with clouds the pure ethereal space.”
Thomson: Castle of Indolence, can to i.

   The French Titian. Jacques Blanchard, the painter (1600-1638).
   The Titian of Portugal. Alonzo Sanchez Coello (1515-1590).