Thursday, February 4, 2016

MISSING T O D D L E R FOUND



TODD(LER)    DeeDaH   Dalet-Dalet-Hey
DEE-dah                   דדה          [T(S)-L]
ROOTS:      TODDLE (to walk with short, unsteady steps, to TEETER and TOTTER, or to DAWDLE aimlessly), TODDLER   (an infant who toddles)  and TOT (a small child) are all of “origin unknown” in the AHD.  Dah, and Dah again. Too bad our language experts are tone deaf.  Maybe the clueless wonders of historical linguistics would be able to connect the dots if only there were a racially-correct, double-dental source word.

The common Ben Yehuda’s pocket Hebrew dictionary has דדה DeeDaH meaning to “walk as a baby,”  but this is far too exotic a research tool for a scholar of “Indo-European” etymology.
Harkavy has  דדה DaDaH meaning to “wander” (Isaiah 38:15).  דדה  DeeDaH is to walk slowly, TOTTERING like a baby (B-Y). 

 This word of shaking back and forth (Psalms 42:5) is related, in Harkavy’s view, to  נדד  NaDahD,  to  wander (Proverbs 27:8.  The comedy (tragedy averted) of Esther turns around when the king (Esther 6:1) is sleeplessly tossing and turning -- נדד  NaDahD. See “NOD.”

BRANCHES:   Besides walking the walk of a TODDLER, the TITUBATION (the TOTTERING gait)  of a TOT, we might also hear infants talking the talk… as in the  TITTER (giggle) of TITTLE-TATTLE.  Even the tiny size of a TITLE (iota, from the tiny י Yod) may speak to the little TOT

Other  ד-ד Dalet-Dalet words to relate to the “unknown” TOT (especially suckling) includes the   דד DahD (breast, nipple) --see “TEAT” -- and the excessive, even DOTTY,  DOTING (fondness) of ידיד  YiDeeYD (beloved friend) that TOTS often expect and receive -- see “DADDY.”
See “DOODLE.”

---------------------------------------------------
Note: This entry is too new to be in the 1600-page, 2016 version of E-WORD: The Edenics Digital Dictionary.  (download at www.edenics.org -- $15)