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kittle

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kittle¹

Where it comes from

From Middle English kitelen, from Old English citelian (“to tickle”), from Proto-West Germanic *kitilōn, from Proto-Germanic *kitilōną, frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *kitōną (“to tickle”), from Proto-Indo-European *geyd- (“to stick, jab, tickle”).

Cognate with Dutch kittelen, kietelen (“to tickle”), Low German kettelen, ketelen (“to tickle”), German kitzeln (“to tickle”), Icelandic kitla (“to tickle”), Swedish kittla, kittsla, Danish kilde and perhaps Old Armenian կիծ- (kic-, “to sting, bite”), but note that many such words are sound-symbolic. Compare tickle.

verb kittles · kittling · kittled · kittel

  1. Northern England, Scotland, transitive To tickle, to touch lightly.

adjective kittler · kittlest · kittel

  1. Northern England, Scotland Ticklish.
  2. Northern England, Scotland Not easily managed

    Similar: troublesome, difficult, variable

kittle²

Where it comes from

From Middle English kitelen, from Old Norse kjetla (“to bring forth young”), equivalent to kit + -le.

verb kittles · kittling · kittled

  1. Northern England, Scotland, intransitive To bring forth young, as a cat; to kitten; to litter.

Kittle³

proper noun Kittles

  1. countable, uncountable A surname.
  2. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Fulton County, Arkansas, United States.
  3. countable, uncountable A village in Pennard community, City and County of Swansea, Wales (OS grid ref SS5789).

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Cite this
MLA

"kittle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/kittle. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

kittle. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/kittle

Chicago

"kittle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/kittle.

BibTeX
@misc{kittle_2026,
  title = {kittle},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/kittle},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}