Kittles

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Touches a person lightly so that they laugh or squirm, especially with the fingers or a feather
2. Causes ticklish sensations by stroking or brushing the skin of another person lightly
3. Makes someone laugh or twitch by lightly touching a sensitive part of their body

Etymology: "Kittles" is the third-person singular form of "kittle," meaning to tickle, and the verb has an odd double ancestry. Its main line runs from Old English "citelian," "to tickle," through Middle English "kitelen," a frequentative formed from a root meaning to stick, jab or tickle. That root is the same one behind German "kitzeln" and Dutch "kietelen," both still meaning to tickle, so the word has been tickling people across the Germanic languages for a very long time. A second, less obvious strand also feeds into the English verb. Middle English "kitelen" may also come from Old Norse "kjetla," meaning "to bring forth young," a sense tied to the noun "kit," a young animal. So English seems to have blended a tickling verb with a farmyard word for giving birth, and the two may have merged in form.

Synonyms: tickle