tick

{{11}}tick (n.¹) parasitic blood-sucking arachnid animal, O.E. ticia, from W.Gmc. *tik- (Cf. M.Du. teke, Du. teek, O.H.G. zecho, Ger. Zecke "tick"), of unknown origin. Fr. tique (mid-15c.), It. zecca are Germanic loan-words.

{{12}}tick (n.²) mid-15c., "light touch or tap," probably from TICK (Cf. tick) (v.) and cognate with Du. tik, M.H.G. zic, and perhaps echoic. Meaning "sound made by a clock" is probably first recorded 1540s; tick-tock is recorded from 1848.

{{12}}tick (n.³) "credit," 1640s, shortening of TICKET (Cf. ticket) (n.).

{{13}}tick (v.) early 13c., "to touch or pat," perhaps from an Old English verb corresponding to TICK (Cf. tick) (n.²), and perhaps ultimately echoic. Cf. O.H.G. zeckon "to pluck," Du. tikken "to pat," Norw. tikke "touch lightly." Related: Ticked; ticking.

To tick (someone) off is from 1915, originally "to reprimand, scold." The verbal phrase tick off was in use in several senses at the time: as what a telegraph instrument does when it types out a message (1873), as what a clock does in marking the passage of time (1846), to enumerate on one's fingers (1899), and in accountancy, etc., "make a mark beside an item on a sheet with a pencil, etc.," often indicating a sale (by 1881). This might be the direct source of the phrase, perhaps via WWI military bureaucratic sense of being marked off from a list as "dismissed" or "ineligible." Meaning "to annoy" is recorded from 1975.