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chee chee imperative hold your tongue! 19. etymology: origin obscure but possibly a development from Romany chichi ‘nothing’; collected by Simson (1865) and attested by two of his informants; also collected by Joseph F G S Lucas from Kirk Yetholm Gypsies note:

Simson (1865) tells of a woman ‘who had been seventeen years in India’ who told him that ‘Chee, chee was, in Hindostanee, an expression of reproof, corresponding exactly with our Fie, shame! Oh fie, shame!'

Smart & Crofton (1875) also collected Chíchi ‘nothing’ from English Gypsies.