titmann.
/ˈtɪtmən/, U.S. /ˈtɪtmən/ U.S. regional (chiefly north-eastern).
1. The smallest pig in a litter. Also more fully titman pig. Now rare.Usage is recorded, esp. in New England and New York State, from the period 1965–70 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (2012) V. 624/2.
ΚΠ
1807 Weekly Inspector (N.Y.) 21 Feb. 298/2 An imperious sense of duty forces me to bring you across my knee, and ‘tickle the tails of a titman or two’.
1854 A. Child Tippletonia 66 As the ‘titman’ does when a larger pig drives him away from the dug he has..appropriated to his own especial use.
1913 W. T. Becker Larkin of Cotton Run iii. 40 Little, round-shouldered, thin-chested fellers they was, always makin' yeh think of a titman pig picked 'fore it was ripe.
1947 H. Croy Corn Country 281 Titman, the runt in a litter of pigs.
2. A person (usually a man) who is the smallest, youngest, weakest, etc., in a family or other group.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > bodily height > shortness > [noun] > person
dwarfeOE
congeonc1230
go-by-ground?a1300
smalla1300
shrimpc1386
griga1400
gruba1400
murche1440
nirvil1440
mitinga1450
witherling1528
wretchocka1529
elf1530
hop-o'-my-thumb1530
pygmy1533
little person1538
manikin1540
mankin1552
dandiprat1556
yrle1568
grundy1570
Jack Sprat1570
squall1570
manling1573
Tom Thumb1579
pinka1585
squib1586
screaling1594
giant-dwarf1598
twattle1598
agate1600
minimus1600
cock sparrow1602
dapperling1611
modicum1611
scrub1611
sesquipedalian1615
dwarflinga1618
wretchcock1641
homuncio1643
whip-handle1653
homuncule1656
whippersnapper1674
chitterling1675
sprite1684
carliea1689
urling1691
wirling1691
dwarf man1699
poppet1699
durgan1706
short-arse1706
tomtit1706
Lilliputian1726
wallydraigle1736
midge1757
minikin1761
squeeze-crab1785
minimum1796
niff-naff1808
titman1818
teetotum1822
squita1825
cradden1825
nyaff1825
weed1825
pinkeen1850
fingerling1864
Lilliput1867
thumbling1867
midget1869
inch1884
shorty1888
titch1888
skimpling1890
stub1890
scrap1898
pygmoid1922
lofty1933
peewee1935
smidgen1952
pint-size1954
pint-sized1973
munchkin1974
1818 T. G. Fessenden Ladies Monitor 113 Vanity oft prematurely calls, Her titman-votaries to your baby-balls.
1854 H. D. Thoreau Walden 117 We are a race of tit-men, and soar but little higher in our intellectual flights than the columns of the daily paper.
1900 H. Garland Eagle's Heart viii. 101 This yer little man must be the tit-man.
1989 H. F. Mosher Stranger in Kingdom (2002) iii. 72 According to Titman (so-called because he was the runt of the White litter), Gilson had flown into a towering rage.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1807