Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • initialism ta-ta for now; goodbye

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

In 1939, initialisms, previously rarely used except by the military, were heard more frequently by the British public. ITMA satirised them by coining TTFN, a "pointless" initialism (no easier to say than the phrase on which it was based) to use as a catchphrase, which became widely repeated in the UK. Thirty years later, Paul Winchell, following the suggestion of his third wife, Jean Freeman, who was British, improvised it as a signature phrase for the (originally British) character Tigger in the Disney films based on A. A. Milne's book, The House at Pooh Corner. This, in a world now accustomed to them, popularised worldwide a word originally coined to make fun of initialisms.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word TTFN.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.