Kittle

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. To tickle someone lightly ; to be easily tickled or touchy about being touched ; to be awkward or tricky to deal with
2. Used of a person to lightly tickle another ; describing someone who is ticklish or easily startled ; describing a matter that is delicate and hard to manage
3. To tickle or excite with light touches ; being ticklish or quick to take offence ; being a tricky or ticklish situation requiring careful handling

Etymology: Kittle is an English word meaning "ticklish" or "difficult to handle," and its story runs through two unrelated origins that happen to share a sound. The first is a frequentative verb from Old English "citelian," meaning "to tickle," which is itself a form built from a Proto-Germanic root for tickling. Its relatives are widespread across the Germanic languages: Dutch "kittelen," German "kitzeln," and Swedish "kittla" all mean "to tickle." Many such words sound alike because they imitate light, jabbing touches, so the resemblance may partly be sound-symbolism rather than strict inheritance. The second origin is a separate verb borrowed from Old Norse "kjetla," meaning "to bring forth young," which in English came to describe a cat giving birth. That sense is built from "kit," a young animal, plus the diminutive-like ending "-le." English speakers thus ended up with two words that were pronounced and spelled identically but came from different roots.

Synonyms: ticklish, tricky