T

*teetotaler \TEE-TOH-tuh-lur\ (noun) – One pledged to entire abstinence from all intoxicating drinks.
"A man who had walked forty miles, in an agony of endurance, to bring wine to a sick person would probably know that a teetotaler would have ordered some other medicine — for a teetotaler forbids all wine, as the Pacifict forbids all war." — G.K. Chesterton, ‘On War Weariness’ Teetotaler is from tee (the letter t, as in total) + total + -er. Teetotalism is the principle or practice of complete abstinence from alcoholic drinks.

temerarious \tem-uh-RAIR-ee-uhs\ (adjective) – Recklessly or presumptuously daring; rash. "I have confessed myself a temerarious theologian, and in that passage from boyhood to manhood I ranged widely in my search for some permanently satisfying Truth." — H. G. Wells, The New Machiavelli Temerarious comes from Latin temerarius, "rash," from temere, "rashly, heedlessly."

toothsome \TOOTH-suhm\ (adjective) –
1 : Pleasing to the taste; delicious; as, "a toothsome pie."
2 : Agreeable; attractive; as, "a toothsome offer."
3 : Sexually attractive.
‘"Rabbit is good, very good," the ancient quavered, "but when it comes to a toothsome delicacy I prefer crab."’ — Jack London, ‘The Scarlet Plague
Toothsome is derived from tooth + -some.

toper \TOH-puhr\ (noun) – One who drinks frequently or to excess.
"He often gives breath to scurrilous conjecture. The toper suborns good fruit and gives it to decay, and the good person who wishes to enjoy the sanivacity and good savor of the wholesome fruit is bereft and must raise this outcry: ‘Why have you despoiled me, O toper, of my fruit and given it to filthy decay?’" — Jack Vance, ‘Demon Princes: The Face’
Toper is formed from the verb tope, "to drink," originally an interjection used in proposing a toast, from French tope!, "agreed!" from toper, "to cover a stake in playing at dice, to accept an offer, to agree."

tractable \TRAK-tuh-buhl\ (adjective) –
1 : Capable of being easily led, taught, or managed; docile.
2 : Easily handled, managed, or worked; malleable.
""It’s very important for me to find a person to fill the management position who is dependable, flexible, a born leader, as well as extremely tractable concerning the regulations and edicts that govern how we operate as a team." — Camika Spencer, ‘Cubicles’
Tractable derives from Latin tractabilis, from tractare, to handle, to manage, frequentative of traho, to draw, to drag.

traduce \truh-DOOS; -DYOOS\ (transitive verb) – To expose to contempt or shame by means of false statements or misrepresentation; to represent as blamable; to vilify.
"In his idle moments, Henry would wonder whether those who traduce today’s television had any conception just how much of it was actually worth watching even for those with college educations."
Traduce derives from Latin traducere, "to lead across, to lead along, to display, to expose to ridicule," from trans-, "across, over" + ducere, "to lead."

trammel \TRAM-uhl\ (noun) –
1 : A kind of net for catching birds, fish, etc.
2 : A kind of shackle used for making a horse amble.
3 : Something that impedes activity, progress, or freedom, as a net or shackle.
4 : An iron hook of various forms and sizes, used for handing kettles and other vessels over the fire.
5 : An instrument for drawing ellipses.
6 : An instrument for aligning or adjusting parts of a machine.
(transitive verb) –
1 : To entangle, as in a net; to enmesh.
2 : To hamper; to hinder the activity, progress, or freedom of.
"Is it a dull or uninstructive picture to see a whole people shaking suddenly off the trammels of reason, and running wild after a golden vision, refusing obstinately to believe that it is not real, till, like a deluded hind running after an ignis fatuus, they are plunged into a quagmire?" — Charles Mackay, ‘Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’
Trammel is from Old French tramail, from Late Latin tremaculum, a kind of net for catching fish, from Latin tres, "three" + macula, "a mesh."

travail \truh-VAYL; TRAV-ayl\ (noun) –
1 : Painful or arduous work; severe toil or exertion.
2 : Agony; anguish.
3 : The labor of childbirth
(intransitive verb) – 1 : To work very hard; to toil. 2 : To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.
"But not for that dream I on this strange course,
But on this travail look for greater birth.
She dying — as it must be so maintained —
Upon the instant that she was accused,
Shall be lamented, pitied, and excused" — William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
Travail is from Old French traveillier, travaillier, from Vulgar Latin tripalium, "a three-staked instrument of torture," from Latin tripalis, "three-staked," from tri-, "three" + palus, "a stake."

troglodyte \TRAHG-leh-dIt\ (noun) – A prehistoric or ancient cave dweller, hence a reclusive, anachronistic person who resists change; a pongid (gorilla, orangutan, or chimpanzee).
"Jane is a troglodyte who brushes her hair, wears sensible shoes, and leaves home only at night in her 1978 station wagon."
Greek troglodytes "caveman" from trogle "hole made by gnawing, (later) cave" (from trogein "to gnaw") + dytes "one who enters." The adjective is "troglodytic" [trahg-le-‘di-tik]. The first constituent, "troglo-" may be combined with other Greek constituents to create new words like troglophile "cave-lover" or troglophobe "someone who fears spelunking."

truckle \TRUHK-uhl\ (intransitive verb) – To yield or bend obsequiously to the will of another; to act in a subservient manner.
"While Janice struggled to be obedient to the conventional values of her father, at the same time she worked to maintain her own playful, creative innocence, and the conflict made her truckle in the face of power."
Truckle is from truckle in truckle bed (a low bed on wheels that may be pushed under another bed; also called a trundle bed), in reference to the fact that the truckle bed on which the pupil slept was rolled under the large bed of the master. The ultimate source of the word is Greek trokhos, "a wheel."
tryst \TRIST; TRYST\ (noun) –
1 : An appointment (as between lovers) to meet; also, an appointed place or time of meeting.
2 : To mutually agree to meet at a certain place; to keep a tryst.
"After meeting casually several times at the coffee shop, Jay suggested that he and Kay should arrange an actual tryst while stopping short of calling it an actual date."
Tryst is from Middle English triste, tryste, "a station to which game was driven (in hunting)," from Old French triste, "a station to which game was driven, a watch post," probably of Scandinavian origin.