TTFN
From Fresh Dictionary
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English
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Initialism
TTFN
- ta ta for now (see ya)
- 1941-1945: A catchphrase of Mrs Mopp (Dorothy Summers) in several series of the weekly topical comedy British radio programme It's That Man Again (ITMA) -- TTFN
- 1974: Tigger (voiced by Paul Winchell) in Unbouncing Tigger - Well, I gotta go, now! I got a lot of bouncing to do! Hoo-hoo-hoo! TTFN! Ta ta for now!
- 2005: April Winchell (in message on her website) - T.T.F.N. I got a phone call a few minutes ago, telling me that my father passed away yesterday.
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Usage notes
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 British third wife, Jean Freeman, 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.
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References
Etymology