Chapter TICCA to TIFFIN of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Norweg. tev, ‘a drawing in of the breath, sniff,’ teva, ‘to sniff’ (Concise Dict. s.v.; and see 9 ser. N. & Q. iv. 425, 460, 506; v. 13).] Rumphius has a curious passage which we have tried in vain to connect with the present word; nor can we find the words he mentions in either Portuguese or Dutch Dictionaries. Speaking of Toddy and the like he says:

“Homines autem qui eas (potiones) colligunt ac praeparant, dicuntur Portugallico nomine Tiffadores, atque opus ipsum Tiffar; nostratibus Belgis tyfferen” (Herb. Amboinense, i. 5).


We may observe that the comparatively late appearance of the word tiffin in our documents is perhaps due to the fact that when dinner was early no lunch was customary. But the word, to have been used by an English novelist in 1811, could not then have been new in India.

We now give examples of the various uses:

TIFF, s. In the old English senses (in which it occurs also in the form tip, and is probably allied to tipple and tipsy); [see Prof. Skeat, quoted above].

(1) For a draught:

1758.—“Monday…Seven. Returned to my room. Made a tiff of warm punch, and to bed before nine.”—Journal of a Senior Fellow, in the Idler, No. 33.


(2) For small beer: 1604.—

“…make waste more prodigal
Than when our beer was good, that John
may float
To Styx in beer, and lift up Charon’s
boat
With wholsome waves: and as the conduits ran
With claret at the Coronation,
So let your channels flow with single tiff,
For John I hope is crown'd.\td”

On John Dawson, Butler of Christ Church, in Bishop Corbet’s Poems, ed. 1807, pp. 207–8.

TO TIFF, v. in the sense of taking off a draught.

1812.—

“He tiff’d his punch and went to rest.”

Combe, Dr. Syntax, I. Canto v. (This is quoted by Mr. Davies.)

TIFFIN (the Indian substantive).

1807.—“Many persons are in the habit of sitting down to a repast at one o’clock, which is called tiffen, and is in fact an early dinner.”—Cordiner’s Ceylon, i. 83.

1810.—“The (Mahommedan) ladies, like ours, indulge in tiffings (slight repasts), it being delicate to eat but little before company.”—Williamson, V.M. i. 352.

„ (published 1812) “The dinner is scarcely touched, as every person eats a hearty meal called tiffin, at 2 o’clock, at home.”—Maria Graham, 29.

1811.—“Gertrude was a little unfortunate in her situation, which was next below Mrs. Fashionist, and who…detailed the delights of India, and the routine of its day; the changing linen, the curry-combing…the idleness, the dissipation, the sleeping and the necessity of sleep, the gay tiffings, were all delightful to her in reciting.…”—The Countess and Gertrude, or Modes of Discipline, by Laetitia Maria Hawkins, ii. 12.

1824.—“The entreaty of my friends compelled me to remain to breakfast and an early tiffin.…”—Seely, Wonders of Ellora, ch. iii.

c. 1832.—“Reader! I, as well as Pliny, had an uncle, an East Indian Uncle…everybody has an Indian Uncle.…He is not always so orientally rich as he is reputed; but he is always orientally munificent. Call upon him at any hour from two till five, he insists on your taking tiffin; and such a tiffin! The English corresponding term is luncheon: but how meagre a shadow is the European meal to its glowing Asiatic cousin.”—De Quincey, Casuistry of Roman Meals, in Works, iii. 259.

1847.—“ ‘Come home and have some tiffin, Dobbin,’ a voice cried behind him, as a pudgy hand was laid on his shoulder.…But the Captain had no heart to go afeasting with Joe Sedley.”—Vanity Fair, ed. 1867, i. 235.

1850.—“A vulgar man who enjoys a champagne tiffin and swindles his servants…may be a pleasant companion to those who do not hold him in contempt as a vulgar knave, but he is not a gentleman.”—Sir C. Napier, Farewell Address.

1853.—“This was the case for the prosecution. The court now adjourned for tiffin.”—Oakfield, i. 319.

1882.—“The last and most vulgar form of ‘nobbling’ the press is well known as the luncheon or tiffin trick. It used to be confined to advertising tradesmen and hotel-keepers, and was practised on newspaper reporters. Now it has been practised on a loftier scale.…”—Saty. Rev., March 25, 357.