Tiptoe

[Dr. Goodword]

• tiptoe •

Pronunciation: tip-tow • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, noun

Meaning: 1. Walk quietly on the toes. 2. Approach an issue cautiously, warily. 3. Avoid dealing with an issue quietly, cautiously.

Notes: Today we begin a series of compounds that have figurative uses. The verb tiptoe uses its present participle, tiptoeing, for an adjective and action noun. If you remember Tiny Tim singing "Tiptoe through the Tulips", I won't tell your age.

In Play: The verb tiptoe is often used as a synonym of creep: "When the conversation turned to age, Chrysalis tiptoed quietly out of the room." The noun usage is almost always in the phrase 'on tiptoe', though the plural is encountered just as often: "Madeline could barely reach the top shelf on her tiptoes."

Word History: Today's Good Word is obviously a compound composed of tip + toe. The historical trail of tip runs out with Proto-Germanic. Middle Dutch had a word tip "extremity, tip" related to German Zipfel "tip". Old Norse (Viking) had a word typpi "tip", which Icelandic has retained in the sense "knob". Toe, on the other hand, was ta in Old English (plural tan), the same as Old Norse. German Zehe (plural Zehen) means "toe" as does Dutch teen, originally a plural. Since toes and fingers are so much alike, they are often named alike: Italian dita, Spanish and Portuguese dedo, Russian palec, and Serbian prst "finger, toe". This leads us to the origin of "finger", which is in Latin digitus, from PIE deik-/doik- "show, indicate". This PIE word is also the source of ditto, token and Latin index "indicator, forefinger".

[Debbymoge]

Dear Good Doctor,
And / remember "tiptoe through the tulips" from PRE-Tiny Tim, and remember, too, the horror at listening to his version.

I'm not about to disown my years, but would not go back to repeat a single second of them.

ONWARD AND UPWARD!!

Debby

[Dr. Goodword]

I'm not about to disown my years, but would not go back to repeat a single second of them.

Even though growing old is much more fun than being old?

[Debbymoge]

Since the "being old" I was led to expect is not likely to be the end product of the "growing old" that I'm experiencing, I have found a different way of looking at it.
When the world is too much with me, when the aches and glitches get me down, I sit and look out the window at the everlasting ocean and smile, and to myself, with a sigh of relief, I repeat my phrases of solace and comfort:

"I'm old. I shall die soon."

In the meantime, make the best of it. After all, everything works out-- one way or another.

[David Myer]

Very similar to my phrase of solace and comfort:

"In the long run, we will all be dead"

It does help to keep things in proportion.

And I think the Good Doctor has a good point - that growing old is more fun than being old. Certainly if we can keep having fun as we grow old, we will never get actually, to be old.