Definition of "tetter"
tetter1
noun
countable and uncountable, plural tetters
(now rare) Any of various pustular skin conditions.
Quotations
Angelus Politianus had a tetter in his nose continually running, fulsome in company, yet no man so eloquent and pleasing in his works.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, partition II, section 3, member 2
She works at St. Veronica’s hospital, lives nearby at the home of a Mrs. Quoad, a lady widowed long ago and since suffering a series of antiquated diseases—greensickness, tetter, kibes, purples, imposthumes and almonds in the ears, most recently a touch of scurvy.
1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
verb
third-person singular simple present tetters, present participle tettering, simple past and past participle tettered
Quotations
[…] And all my smooth body, barked and tettered over.
c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene v]
I bent down to touch him, for my revulsion had gone, and had been replaced by a great love and sorrow; and thus I wept upon his form, that was cold like a corpse's, its wasted brawn tettered all over with sores and encrustations that were not the botches and whelks of leprosy — though e'en then I would have embraced him, as St Hugh of Lincoln kissed many a leper for the good of his own spirit!
2009, Adam Thorpe, Hodd, published 2010, page 284
tetter2
noun
plural tetters
(Regional Dixieland vernacular, obsolete) Potato, or sweet potato root.
Quotations
But mebbe you ax, is tetter wine("vine") a bad ting? No, I say, tetter wine is a good ting. You cant hab tetter widout de tetter wine. Dat wha' tetter wine fur? To mek tetter. But dat tetter wine dat ent mek tetter, dats a bad tetter wine kase e barren tetter wine.
1895, John G. Williams, "De Ole Plantation."