| 释义 |
▪ I. ticky, n.|ˈtɪkɪ|
Also tiki, tickie, tikkie, tickey.
[Origin uncertain: see Note.]
The colloquial name in South Africa for a threepenny piece.[a 1860 Remembered in colloquial use at Cape Town.] 1877J. A. Chalmers Tiyo Soga xxii. 471 Those poured an unusually large quantity of tickies into the plates at the doors. 1895Westm. Gaz. 6 Mar. 8/1 The coin of smallest value in the Transvaal is the ‘tickie’, or threepenny-bit. 1903Ibid. 25 July 2/1 In purchasing-power the ‘tickey’ [of Johannesburg] is certainly not more than equal to the penny of London. In many cases its value is less than a halfpenny.
‘Note. Residents of Cape Colony, whose memory goes back to c 1850, state that they have known ‘ticky’ all their lives. The prevalent notion is that the word was first used by the Caffres or other native labourers; it is at present in Sesuto (the Basuto lang.), teke |ˈteːke|. But it is believed to have been a native imitation of some Dutch or Eng. word; e.g. of Cape Dutch stukje ‘little piece, little bit’, pronounced |stykɪ|, and imitated by the natives as (tüki, tiki); according to others, of Eng. ticket, it being explained that on an occasion when a large body of natives were employed on a public work, they were, for want of small silver coin, paid with tickets for 3d., which were taken in payment by the provision stores, and redeemed at that rate by the authorities. Other statements or conjectures (e.g. that tikki was an attempt to say ‘little’) have been offered in the Cape Times, etc., April to June 1912, but nothing in the form of evidence has been adduced.’—N.E.D.
▪ II. ticky, a.|ˈtɪkɪ|
[f. tick n.1 + -y.]
Full of or infested by ticks.
1831Blackw. Mag. XXX. 270 He [a turkey] becomes..craven and crest-fallen, emaciated and ticky. |