▪ I. † tike, tyke1 Obs. rare—1.
[Generally taken as = tyke, dog, sense 2; but perh. ad. Welsh taeog (taiog), in OWelsh taiawc villain, churl, Cornish tioc or tiac husbandman, farmer, ploughman, rustic:—OCeltic *tegācos, deriv. of *teg-os, Welsh ty a house: cf. for the sense cottar, med.L. cotarius, from cota; villein, med.L. villanus, from villa.]
One of a class of persons subject to tallage (cf. tallageability, quot. 1888); a churl, villein.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 37 The iuwes, þat were gentil men, ihesu þei dispised, Bothe his lore & his lawe; now ar þei lowe cherlis. As wyde as þe worlde is, wonyeth þere none But vnder tribut & taillage as tykes & cherles [1393 C. xxii. 37 tikes and cheorles]. |
[Note. On this word see A. L. Mayhew in Guardian 10 Nov. 1909. Taeog was in Welsh a technical term (Anct. Welsh Laws 216, 266), and may have been known west of the Severn in English counties on the Welsh Border. Tike = ‘dog’, appears later, and then only in the north.]
▪ II. tike2
var. tyke, a low-bred dog.
▪ III. tike, tikel, -ell(e, -il, tiket, tikkat, -et
obs. forms of tick, tickle, ticket.