What does "tis" mean?

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Great question. The word "tis", is a very old contraction of "it is". You will often see it written either as "tis" or "'tis", but with or without the apostrophe it is still the same word. ‘Tis is also known as a proclitic, which is a word that “is closely connected in pronunciation with the following word.” Basically, ’tis was probably so popular because it was easy to say (it really does just roll of the tongue), especially if you needed to express yourself in a hurry. While it is not as popular these days, it can still be used and is not a strange word to hear. Ex: Tis such a shame he missed his game. Ex: Tis too early to go home.

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Popular Q&As

01/10

1
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"Prison slang" refers to slang terms that are used by inmates within a prison. There are many different slang terms used in prisons but most of them are unknown to people who have never been in prison. Most "prison slang" terms are related to criminal activity, prison life, and other inmates, most of which are not used in daily conversation by regular English speakers. However, some of this slang has been made more popular from the media. For the example, the term "bagman" comes from prison slang and refers to someone who is in possession of drugs.

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4
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5
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