dit
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: dĭt, IPA(key): /dɪt/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɪt
Etymology 1
From Middle English ditten, dütten, from Old English dyttan (“to stop up, close”), from Proto-West Germanic *duttijan, from Proto-Germanic *duttijaną, from *duttaz (“wisp”), akin to Icelandic dytta. Related to Old English dott (“dot, point”). More at dot.
Verb
dit (third-person singular simple present dits, present participle ditting, simple past and past participle ditted)
- (UK dialectal, Northern England) To stop up; block (an opening); close (compare Scots dit).
- (obsolete) To close up.
- 1599, James VI and I, Basilikon Doron:
- that I would haue thought my sincere plainnesse in that first part vpon that subiect, should haue ditted the mouth of the most enuious Momus
Related terms
Etymology 2
Variant of dite.
Noun
dit (plural dits)
- (obsolete, rare) A ditty, a little melody.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- No bird, but did her shrill notes sweetly sing; / No song but did containe a louely dit: / Trees, braunches, birds, and songs were framed fit [...].
- (obsolete) A word; a decree.
Etymology 3
Imitative.
Translations
See also
Etymology 4
Shortening.
Adjective
dit (not comparable)
- (Canada, obsolete) Indicator of a declared surname originating from Canadian French.
Related terms
Afrikaans
Alternative forms
- 't (Cape Afrikaans)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dət/
Audio (file)
Pronoun
dit (possessive sy)
- it, this, that (subject and object)
- referring to the context
- Dit lyk baie moeilik.
- It seems very difficult.
- referring to something seen or heard in the real world
- Dit is ’n huis. ― This is a house.
- referring to non-personal singular nouns
- Sy het my die boek gegee, maar ek het dit nog nie gelees nie.
- She gave me the book, but I haven’t read it yet.
- referring to the context
Synonyms
Derived terms
See also
subjective | objective | possessive determiner | possessive pronoun | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular | 1st | ek | my | myne | ||
2nd | jy | jou | joune | |||
2nd, formal | u | u s’n | ||||
3rd, masc | hy | hom | sy | syne | ||
3rd, fem | sy | haar | hare | |||
3rd, neut | dit | sy | syne | |||
plural | 1st | ons | ons s’n | |||
2nd | julle / jul1 | julle s’n | ||||
3rd | hulle / hul1 | hulle s’n | ||||
1. The forms jul and hul are unstressed variants. They are used mostly in possessive function, but also otherwise, chiefly when the pronoun is repeated within the same sentence. |
Aromanian
Related terms
- dintrã
- ditrã
Breton
Catalan
Etymology 1
Inherited from Latin digitus. Doublet of dígit. Cognate with Occitan det and dit, French doigt, Spanish dedo and dígito, Portuguese dedo and dígito, and Galician dedo.
Noun
dit m (plural dits)
- finger, toe
- fingerbreadth
- tres o quatre dits d'ample
- three or four finger(breadth)s wide
Derived terms
Derived terms
Further reading
- “dit” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “dit” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Central Franconian
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle High German diser m, whose neuter was dit in Central Franconian (other Middle High German diz). The regular outcome would be disse vs. det. The vocalic variation was levelled one way or the other in all dialects. Levelling of the consonantism remained optional and probably occurred only after the determiner had been chiefly restricted to periods of time.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dit/
- (masculine disse) /ˈdizə/
Danish
See also
Number | Person | Type | Nominative | Oblique | Possessive | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
common | neuter | plural | |||||
Singular | First | – | jeg | mig | min | mit | mine |
Second | modern / informal | du | dig | din | dit | dine | |
formal | De | Dem | Deres | ||||
Third | masculine (person) | han | ham | hans | |||
feminine (person) | hun | hende | hendes | ||||
common(noun) | den | dens | |||||
neuter(noun) | det | dets | |||||
reflexive | – | sig | sin | sit | sine | ||
Plural | First | modern | vi | os | vores | ||
archaic / formal | vor | vort | vore | ||||
Second | – | I | jer | jeres | |||
Third | – | de | dem | deres | |||
reflexive | – | sig |
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dɪt/
audio (file) - Hyphenation: dit
- Rhymes: -ɪt
Determiner
dit
- this (neuter); referring to a thing or a person closer by.
- dit huis
- this house
- dit kind
- this child
Inflection
Dutch demonstrative determiners | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
Proximal | deze | deze | dit | deze |
Distal | die | die | dat | die |
Possessive | diens | dier | diens | dier |
Derived terms
Usage notes
This pronoun can combine with a preposition to form a pronominal adverb. When this occurs, it is changed into its adverbial/locative counterpart hier. See also Category:Dutch pronominal adverbs.
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /di/
Audio (Paris) (file) Audio (file)
Etymology 1
From Old French dit, from Latin dictus.
Participle
dit (feminine dite, masculine plural dits, feminine plural dites)
- past participle of dire
- Il a dit son nom. ― He said his name.
- (in names) Indicating a surname used as a family name.
Verb
dit
- inflection of dire:
- third-person singular present indicative
- third-person singular past historic
- « Je m’appelle Paul, » dit-il. ― “My name is Paul,” he said.
Further reading
- “dit”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Friulian
German
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dɪt/, /dʏt/
Audio (file)
Indonesian
Louisiana Creole
Etymology
From French dire (“to tell”), compare Haitian Creole di.
References
- Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales
Middle Dutch
Etymology 1
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Further reading
- “dit”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
- Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “dit”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN
North Frisian
Old French
Noun
dit oblique singular, m (oblique plural diz or ditz, nominative singular diz or ditz, nominative plural dit)
Verb
dit
Descendants
- French: dit
Scots
Etymology
From Early Scots ditt or dyt, from Old English dyttan.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈdɪt/
- (Hawick) IPA(key): /ˈdɪʔ/
Swedish
Etymology
From Old Swedish þit, from Old Norse þít, according to SAOB likely from þí + at. þí is in turn an old locative, possibly related to Gothic 𐌸𐌴𐌹 (þei), and more distantly to Ancient Greek τεῖ (teî) in τεῖδε (teîde, “thither”). Equivalent to ty + åt.
Pronunciation
audio (file)
Adverb
dit (not comparable)
- to there, thither, (often in practice, in translations) there
- Antonym: hit (“to here, hither”)
- Jag gick dit, så nu är jag där
- I went [to] there, so now I am there
- Jag gick där (for comparison)
- I was walking (around) there / I was walking at that location
- springa hit och dit
- run to here and to there / run hither and thither (indicating for example chaos or a lack of direction)
- (relative) to where, where (expresses movement to a place)
- staden dit de flyttade
- the city [to] where / to which they moved
- 1973, Landslaget (lyrics and music), “Tala om vart du ska resa [Tell me where you are traveling [to where you shall (are going to) travel]]”:
- Ta mig dit där solen skiner, dit där himlen jämt är blå, dit där sjöarna är klara, dit jag alltid velat gå.
- Take me [to] where ["to where, where ..." – second "where" from "där"] the sun shines, [to] where [where] the sky is always blue, [to] where [where] the lakes are clear, [to] where I've always wanted ["have wanted" – "have" implied from supine] to go [walk].