How lewd military slang gave rise to ‘chitty bang bangs’

In offices across Hong Kong, staff are writing out chits – of appointments, deliveries, food or drink consumed – to record payment due. The word “chit” and the earlier but now obsolete term “chitty” come from the Hindi chitthi, meaning note or letter, which comes from the Sanskrit chitra (“spot”, “mark”). This was how notes delivered by servants in British India were referred to; the Anglo-Indian term entered British usage in the mid-18th century, and is still commonly heard. In India, its greatest frequency occurs as “chit fund” – a savings scheme involving several subscribers, each of whom, in turn, are eventually entitled to the prize total.

The apparent connection (think: note, voucher, money) with that South Asian merchant class, the Chettis, and the hybrid Chitty communities (Tamil Cetti, Citti “mercantile class”) – descendants of male Chettis who married and settled in Ceylon, Malacca and Singapore in the 15th century – is perhaps specious. Word associations lie elsewhere.