tottie, noun

/ˈtɒti/
Forms:
Also tottee, totty, and with initial capital.
Origin:
EnglishShow more Formed on Hottentot + English (informal) noun-forming suffix -ie (or -y); cf. Hottie.
obsolescent, offensive, colloquial
1. In historical contexts. A derogatory or affectionate form of address or reference to a Khoikhoi (noun sense 1). Also attributive.
1832 Graham’s Town Jrnl 20 Apr. 67Poor Tottee must bear the blame, he is always the rogue; and yet Tottee was living all over the country when the English came.
1835 T.H. Bowker Journal. 27 Sept.The totties dancing to the sound of their Calabash fiddles & &.
1848 H. Ward Five Yrs in Kaffirland I. 287Those gallant little Totties are an untiring, determined band. How little do we know in England of the smartness and courage of the Hottentot!
1856 R.E.E. Wilmot Diary (1984) 37On asking him if it was true that many Kaffirs in female attire were found, he said ‘No, I saw one Totty boy of about 15 years who tried the dodge but a burgher saw him’.
1863 J.S. Dobie S. Afr. Jrnl (1945) 121A great many well dressed ‘Tottie’ girls flaming about in their crinolines.
1868 W.R. Thomson Poems, Essays & Sketches p.xxvI am now as popular, not with ‘Totties’ alone, but with English, Dutch, and coloured people, as a member well can be in such a mixed constituency.
1876 F. Boyle Savage Life 283‘What is it, Totty?’ somebody asked...‘Horses — go quick — stop now!’ muttered the Totty.
1879 T.J. Lucas Zulus & Brit. Frontiers 88When I first joined the regiment, the Hottentots, or ‘Tottys,’ as we called them for abbreviation[’s] sake, were habited in leather pantaloons.
1883 Good News in Afr. 110The Hottentots are a miserable little race, sometimes called ‘Totties’ in contempt.
1898 G. Nicholson 50 Yrs 24They might easily have been saved from extinction by appropriate legislation,but the anti-slavery enthusiasts insisted on drastic treatment, and the poor ‘Tottie’ succumbed to a full dose of freedom, administered without timely preparation.
1934 N. Devitt Mem. of Magistrate 216The Hottentot is a curious creature. He has some of the attributes of his white master...The ‘Tottie’ has also at times a weird humour.
1968 F.C. Metrowich Frontier Flames 225His Hottentot servant..was a Private in the Cape Mounted Rifles...Many a time the poor ‘Totty’ was ordered punishment for the faults of his master.
1976 A. Delius Border 185An argument between an officer of the 55th and Captain Aitchison of the Cape Mounted Rifles. This officer had made some slighting remark about the value of the Totties as soldiers, and Captain Aitchison said by God he would rather have Totties at his back in this sort of war than any great clumsy clanking red dragoon.
2.
a. A derogatory or affectionate term for one who is not White, particularly a Coloured person. See also coloured noun sense a.
1900 O. Osborne In Land of Boers 41The Malays and ‘Totties’ were quite a new thing in humanity to us.
1955 A. Delius Young Trav. in S. Afr. 36Good lord, we wouldn’t play with Totties!..Black people and Coloured people aren’t allowed to mix with the white people.
1955 A. Delius Young Trav. in S. Afr. 50What a little democrat you are, Paul!..Always ready with some bad old name like Kaffir or Nigger or Tottie for the Bantu.
1964 G. Campbell Old Dusty 14No other society than the mongrel dog and a few fowls and an occasional Cape Tottie.
b. comb.
tottie pink, coolie pink (see coolie sense 2).
1970 E.G.B. Hardy Informant, Cape Town, Western CapeTotty pink, coolie pink — puce or magenta. Later rendered respectable and fashionable by Schiaparelli as ‘shocking pink’.
1972 Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)I had a shocking pink dress for a ball some years ago and asked the girl in the chemist’s for a lipstick to match and asked her for a sort of totty pink — she nearly had a fit.
3. rare. Hottentot noun sense 2.
1905 [see Hottentot noun sense 2].
A derogatory or affectionate form of address or reference to a Khoikhoi (noun sense 1). Also attributive.
A derogatory or affectionate term for one who is not White, particularly a Coloured person.
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derogatory or offensive
obsolete or obsolescent
totsiens, interjectionint.tou, nounn.
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