suited to a {T|tee}?

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Father Ignatius - 03 Jan 2007 18:48 GMT

and that suited Fred to a tee?

and that suited Fred to a T?

And why?

What, here, is a T, anway?

TIA

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R J Valentine - 04 Jan 2007 03:16 GMT

...
} What, here, is a T, anway?

Who you calling "anway"?

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rjv
It's The Anerican Way!

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Peter Duncanson - 04 Jan 2007 14:22 GMT

>and that suited Fred to a tee?
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
>What, here, is a T, anway?

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1999) opines:

To a T. Exactly. The allusion is to a T-square for the
accurate drawing of right-angles, parallel lines and so on.

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Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

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Evan Kirshenbaum - 05 Jan 2007 01:17 GMT

>>What, here, is a T, anway?
>>
> Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1999) opines:
>
> To a T. Exactly. The allusion is to a T-square for the
> accurate drawing of right-angles, parallel lines and so on.

MWCD11 opines "short for _to a tittle_". Using Google Books I can
cite that 10 1694, in Laurence Echard's translation of Plautus's
_Epidicus_:

This Gentleman is the fittest i'the World. He understands a
Bargain to a Tittle, and has the Law at his Fingers ends.

There are quite a few (139) eighteenth century hits for the phrase and
even more (617) nineteenth century hits, so I'd guess that they are
correct.

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

suited to a {T|tee}?