Where does the expression "tough titties" originate?

Answer 1

A MAN?

Answer 2

This is an explanation which I came across. I can't vouch for its seriousness!

"The phrase 'tough titty' came from the well-known childrens rhyme..

'Wouldn't it be funny if a lady had a wooden tit, wouldn't it?'

This was banned in Victorian schools as being disrespectful to native species of garden and hedgrow birds, now vulnerable to the waves of dispossesed Russian starlings flooding into the country after WWI.

The phrase was actually outlawed in favour of the more realistic Dr Foster rhyme. (see 'Dr Foster, the first real hero of middle earth' by the same author). With an allusion between Gloucester and wooden body parts not being wasted on the largely Christian Victorian audience, who had been hearing rumours of the innappropriate use of truncheons in the district for some time.

As a result, a shortened allusion to the phrase was adopted and 'tough titty' became the preferred way to make schoolboys collapse into fits of giggles.

Eventually the link beween 'tough titty' and the rhyme became disconnected, in the same way Hoover did from vacuum cleaners in general, making the term one of the earliest dismissive 'brands' of 'commonspeech'. Action by protestors led to a revival of the original phrase as a reaction to the now meaningless version 'buff whitty (or buff witty north of leeds)' this more lucid period lasted until 1976 when both the phrase, and the rhyme fell off the list of 'official' playground rhymes, though with official lists ceasing in 1977 when the advent of the early version of 'Thundercats-Ho' started diverting children's minds towards the mystic treasures of the far east, it is difficult to make accurate comparision. A complete version of the rhyme is still told to the more fortunate children of upper-middle class families, spreading to the lower orders through the domestic classes, and finally becoming manifest in the gutteral expression 'wooarh', accompanied by a range of hand gestures around the chest area.

Now, often mistaken as an allusion to the equal status of women in modern warfare, the phrase is experiencing a modern resurgence in the wake of the Afghan and Iraqi Wars, fought by the newer and slicker British Empire recontructed and repackaged as the United States of America."

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Where does the expression "tough titties" originate?

Answer 4

The story I heard was that on long sea voyages, or long overland treks, such as waggon trains across the American west, babies were given ships biscuit or stale bread, soaked in milk, to suck on, or chew if they were teething - this was known as Tough Tittie. And the expression had come to mean ' hard luck, you can't have what you want, you'll have to make do with this poor substitute instead' - tough tittie, kid!

Answer 5

I agree that it's probably from when mattresses were stuffed with straw, or people just plain slept on hay . I'm a night owl - I usually hit the hay around midnight, but then I read until one or so, depending on the book.

Answer 6

Tough Titty

Answer 7

A little breast cancer clinic in North Dakota.

Answer 8

it came from those girls who have huge monkey nipples