Etymology: Often identified with chit n.³, but found more than two centuries earlier, and at a time when the latter (if it existed at all) existed as chīthe . Seeing how this constantly renders catulus , we may compare it with kitten , kitling . Compare also the Cheshire dialect chit , Scots cheet ‘puss’, and chitty , cheety a cat. With sense 2 compare kid , cub , whelp applied contemptuously to a child: as, however, sense 1 is obsolete, it is probable that people now often associate sense 2 with chit n.³, as if = ‘sprout’, ‘young slip’; compare ‘chit of a girl’ with ‘slip of a girl’.

Etymology: chich n., chick-pea, lentil, was in 16th cent. corrupted to chits , which being taken as plural, yielded a singular chit . Sense 3 is entirely doubtful, and may belong to chit n.¹ or to chit n.³

Etymology: This and its verb of identical form appear about 1600: nothing is known of their history, but it is conjectured that the noun may be a somehow changed descendant of Middle English chithe n., Old English cíð in same sense. But the shortening of the long vowel in such a position, and the change of ð to t, are in the present state of our knowledge inexplicable.

Etymology: Apparently shortened < chitty n., perhaps influenced by the pronunciation of Tamil cīṭṭu (with elision of the final vowel).

Etymology: < Sanskrit cit, specific use of cit faculty of thought, intellect, consciousness < ci- to perceive, to observe + -t , suffix forming adjectives (apparently originally in acit (adjective) without understanding; compare a- un- prefix¹).

Etymology: Goes with chit n.³, as its immediate source, or immediate derivative: compare to sprout, bud, seed, etc.

Etymology: Imitative of the sound: compare cheet v., chit n.⁴, chitter v.