tidbit

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *déh₂itis Proto-Germanic *tīdiz Proto-West Germanic *tīdi Old English tid English bit English tidbit From Old English tid (“fond, tender, nice”) + English bit (“morsel”).

1. A part of poultry when prepared as food

   “The best mode of cutting up this Poultry is by raising, one after another, the four members, beginning by a thigh and wing on the same side, the tidbits and the white-meats; then break off the rump, and cut the body horizontally. Divide each thigh into two, and wing into three pieces; the body and the rump making six distinct ones; the white meats remaining entire. Place each piece on the dish in such a manner that all may be seen. All this should be done as quickly and cleverly as possible, in order to prevent the pieces getting cold. The tidbit is a veiny piece under the thigh, at the beginning of wing.”

   “If in any case he ever reserved the tidbits of his own table for his own taste, he was never weary of sending the whole joint, tidbit and all, nay even when the whole joint was itself a tidbit, to his neighbor's table.”

2. A tasty morsel (of food).

   “Only a tidbit to a ravenous mouth. (Said when the little tidbit Denmark flies down the huge gullet of Prussia; or when Saghalin falls into Russia's maw.)”

3. A short item of news, gossip, or information.

   “Maya: Maybe we should leave a juicy tidbit for someone to read!”

   “In the congressional apportionment that followed the 1910 census, the average district had 210,328 people, according to the Census Bureau. We make note of this historical tidbit simply to emphasize the obvious fact that DC’s current population is far greater than the population of many of the districts of generations past.”

4. Generically, any small thing.

   “This little book is very entertaining—quite a literary tidbit.”