Etymograph

English

tee

Tee comes from Old English te ‘to’, and goes back to Latin tē ‘the name of the Latin script letter T/t’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtē1‘the name of the Latin script letter T/t’
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150te1‘to’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1773tee1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English tee
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1773, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal E: “The word length, which contains only four sounds l…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtēWiktionary, English tee‘the name of the Latin script letter T/t’
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150teWiktionary, English tee‘to’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1773teeWiktionary, English tee. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1773, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal E: “The word length, which contains only four sounds l…”

Every English word from Latin tē

Another origin of tee

  1. Scotsc. 1450–presentteaz
  2. Englishtodaytee

First attested in the 17th century as teaz, back-formation from obsolete Scots teaz, later reanalyzed as a plural.

Another origin of tee

  1. Burmesemodernထီးhti:‘umbrella’
  2. Englishtodaytee

Today it means

noun The name of the Latin script letter T/t.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “tee”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin tē / tee

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