Is "tee tee" for pee a regional or ethnic thing?

November 17, 2013 11:49 AM

Is "tee-tee" for urination a regional or ethnic thing?

The older generation in my family uses "tee tee" instead of "pee pee" with kids. I've never heard this anywhere outside of Southeast Texas. I had forgotten about it until recently.

I've tried searching for information about slang for pee online but I've come up empty-handed. A long time ago I found something that suggested "tee tee" might be used in African American dialects. All my relatives are Italian Americans.

Does anyone else use this word? Where are you from?

I'd like to clarify that this is not a poll or chatfilter. I want to know where the word "tee tee" is used and how I could search for information about the distribution of its usage (I don't know if that's the proper way to phrase what I mean. I am not a linguist).

posted by vincele to Grab Bag (35 answers total)

I grew up in southeast Louisiana saying "tee tee" and "pee pee" interchangeably. I'm white.

My understanding is that there's a high degree of crossover between AAVE (African American Vernacular English, which is the agreed on name in linguistic circles) and general Southern usage. It can be really difficult to separate out the regional terms from the "ethnic" ones, in the US South. It's not like the US Northeast where you can tell what part of Sicily someone's family is from by how they pronounce the word "mozzarella".
posted by Sara C. at 11:54 AM on November 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

I am not sure - but I am from the New England and also have been living in Tennessee for a while and have never heard the phrase. I've heard pee-pee and "wee-wee"
posted by KogeLiz at 11:55 AM on November 17, 2013

My ex-inlaws used it, and they are white folk in Mississippi and Alabama.
posted by kimberussell at 11:57 AM on November 17, 2013

We've used it in North Carolina. I'm white.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 11:58 AM on November 17, 2013

My family is white with West Tennessee origins. This was baby-talk for pee in my family.
posted by kimdog at 12:06 PM on November 17, 2013

The only time I've ever heard it was in the '70s, from a (white) family who was originally from Georgia.
posted by scody at 12:11 PM on November 17, 2013

My (white) family used it in south Georgia, growing up in the 1980s.
posted by bizzyb at 12:19 PM on November 17, 2013

I've heard relatives in Mississippi say that. Never heard it growing up in New Orleans. White.
posted by sleepingcbw at 12:29 PM on November 17, 2013

White, from Cleveland, Ohio. My father (white, from Ohio, but spent many years living in North Carolina and Florida) uses it sometimes. He also says tinkle (which, for full effect, you have to picture a big, burly bear of a dude announcing that he has to go tinkle now) and I've always sort of assumed that tee-tee was derived from tinkle, much as pee was an abbreviated form of piss.
posted by MeghanC at 12:38 PM on November 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

White, from Chicago area. Never heard it. BUT, my grandma, who had many relatives from Oklahoma/Kansas, always uses 'tinkle'. Maybe tee-tee came from tinkle, which came from ?
posted by hydra77 at 12:40 PM on November 17, 2013

White, from California. The only person I knew who said "tee-tee" was one girl who was originally from Texas. She also said "tinkle." I've heard a few other people (origin unknown) who say "tinkle."
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 12:44 PM on November 17, 2013

8th generation Atlantan here. Grew up saying tee tee. Whole family says tee tee. Strangely enough, I was raised that "pee" or "pee pee" was ugly talk or 'common'. I know, I know....it's the difference of one consonant to another but I still cringe to this day when I hear someone say pee or the worst... 'pee my/your pants'. I think it's in the blood. Sorry y'all.
posted by pearlybob at 1:04 PM on November 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

Oh, and I'm white.
posted by pearlybob at 1:15 PM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

Definitely heard this from my family, particularly the older ladies, from Tennessee and Mississippi. It was very baby-talk, and I never heard it used outside of talking to small children and/or pets.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:27 PM on November 17, 2013

White Alabamian here; my mom used this word when I was little.
posted by ocherdraco at 1:41 PM on November 17, 2013

Ditto. I knew some southern-belle Tampa moms using 'tee tee' with their small children circa '90-'95.
posted by easement1 at 2:34 PM on November 17, 2013

I've only heard it used, honest to god, by Bill Cosby in a routine about taking his little daughter to a football game. She starts yelling "I wanna tee-tee NOW!" This would be from back in the late 60's or or early 70's or so.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:07 PM on November 17, 2013

White and grew up in Georgia. My mom called it Tee Tee when we were little, the early '80s. She was from deep, deep south Georgia.
posted by danielle the bee at 3:21 PM on November 17, 2013

Chris Sizemore (subject of Three faces of Eve) is from SC and used it when she was potty training her little sister.
posted by brujita at 3:25 PM on November 17, 2013

I only ever heard one person use that term, she is white and lives in Alabama.
posted by fancyoats at 3:50 PM on November 17, 2013

Much like pearlybob, I am somethingth generation Atlantan. Grew up saying tee-tee, and "pee" was vulgar. I got my mouth washed out with soap once for saying it, in fact.
posted by gone2croatan at 3:53 PM on November 17, 2013

I heard tee-tee for the first time after I had moved to Baton Rouge by a white neighbor, and then subsequently by mostly white but also some black neighbors and friends. I assumed it was some weird combo of tinkle and pee-pee.
posted by vegartanipla at 4:07 PM on November 17, 2013

Italian American raised in central Texas and heard it all my life used mostly with young children.
posted by tamitang at 4:38 PM on November 17, 2013

White, California. Never heard it before. (I live in TX now but all the parents I know are from CA so don't know if it is said here).
posted by magnetsphere at 4:49 PM on November 17, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for your answers! I feel stupid now because I see there's an entry in the urban dictionary for tee tee (never mind feeling stupid for asking this question in the first place!).

I agree that "pee" sounds vulgar in comparison but I couldn't explain why if my life depended on it.
posted by vincele at 5:08 PM on November 17, 2013

Just as a data point, the only people I've met before who used that phrase (which was new to me) were African-American Texans.
posted by threeants at 6:38 PM on November 17, 2013

White Atlantan, born in the early 70s, only allowed to say tee-tee ("pee" was considered bad). I could see my mom visibly cringe when we were potty training our kids and said "pee" and "poop" (I was raised with "shoo-shoo", which I've never heard anyone else say).
posted by candyland at 8:16 PM on November 17, 2013

Pat Conroy (whose mother is from GA)has one of the Great Santini's kids say shoe-shoe instead of dogshit in the book.
posted by brujita at 8:30 PM on November 17, 2013

My grandmother who was from West Virginia and was white used tee-tee, but only when I was a very little kid.
posted by JennyJupiter at 5:50 AM on November 18, 2013

White Virginian here, and growing up in central Virginia, never heard the term. Strangely, in my family, I don't think we even used a word to refer to the act other than 'bathroom.' "Need to use the bathroom?" Roots were in Southwest Virginia, though my parents had a habit of suppressing the regionalisms in their way of speaking.
posted by Atreides at 2:01 PM on November 18, 2013

Best answer: Librarian here. What you're looking for is the Dictionary of American Regional English, which is a multi-volume extravaganza of dialect and usage across the U.S.

The entry for "tee-tee" says it appears chiefly in the South, referring to urination and by extension to the genitals. The earliest the DARE has a quotation from is 1968-1970, in Louisiana, as part of "tee-tee pot," referring to a chamber pot. Other citations occur between 1971 and 2004, and are from Georgia, Mississippi, and central Texas. There's one citation noted as from the Black community, but none of the other citations have ethnic information.

And on a personal note, that's the word my (white) family used when I was a kid, in central Texas in the early 1970s.
posted by telophase at 2:26 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you for looking that up!
posted by vincele at 2:51 PM on November 18, 2013

You're welcome! I phoned my mom up and asked about her usage of "tee-tee," and she says that she's pretty sure it was used in her immediate and extended family when she was a child, so that would be in the 1940s and 50s, in Central and West Texas.
posted by telophase at 4:09 PM on November 18, 2013

My (white, female, late-40s) neighbor is from Alexandria, Louisiana, and she says "tee-tee", but only in reference to her dogs, as in "you guys go tee-tee outside". When she's talking about a person she says "go to the bathroom". I've overheard people saying it to their kids in public restrooms (in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama) as well.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 5:47 PM on November 18, 2013

I grew up (as a white girl in Alabama) with "wee-wee," but I remember some of my cousins saying "tee-tee." "Pee"/"pee-pee" was definitely considered vulgar in my house.
posted by naoko at 10:23 AM on November 20, 2013