Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US juv.) very small, minuscule.

1881		N.O. Democrat (LA) 6 Mar. 8/4: About a million [...] teensy-weensy [...] caterpillars hatched out.
1884		G.W. Bagby Old Virginia Gentleman (1910) 18: A little ‘teenchy’ bit of a shoe it was, too.
1884		Pleasanton Observer-Enterprise (KS) 19 July 2/2: Only a little teensy-weensy bit of tails of the cats are visible.
1899		in H. Wentworth Amer. Dial. Dict. (1944) 626/1: Little teensy bit of a boy .
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 334: The idee of me an’ Stella bein’ put out of the third floor front, an’ put in a teenchy room on the air shaft.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 98: tintsy-wintsy, adj. Minute, tiny. ‘The Texas fever tick’s a tintsy-wintsy bug.’.
1908		Pioche Record (NV) 12 Dec. 4/2: A weenchy, teenchy baby girl.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 380: teentsy(-weentsy), adj. Very small.
1912		Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, NC) 23 Nov. 11/2: He [...] rolled his goggle eyes an’ tried to make up to hisa teenchy neighbour.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 83: I’ll be back in a minute, in the teenciest weenciest minute.
1926		J. Tully Jarnegan (1928) 183: I’ll fix a weeny teeny bit of scotch.
1930		J.P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl 12: I’m sure he won’t care if I let you in on an eeentsieweentsie bit of it.
1930		Spokane Chron. (WA) 30 Sept. 3/1: Uncle Andy was driving along in his tintsy-wintsy Austin [...] when along came a great, big, mean, old Buick.
1931		P. Stevenson Gospel According to St Luke’s 219: Papa, do you think I could have just a teensy-weensy bit more ice-cream?
1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 94: Same one. But looked a little teenchy weenchy bit different.
1936		Auden & Isherwood Ascent of F6 II v: My dear, I’m terribly sorry for you. I do understand. But aren’t you being just a teeny-weeny bit morbid?
1937		N.Y. Times Mag. 11 Apr. 23/3: Can’t you sneak off to bed just one teensie-weensie night?
1939		R. Chandler ‘Pearls Are a Nuisance’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 122: Will you promise me just one teensy-weensy little thing?
1945		Star-Phoenix (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) 4 Aug. 17/5: It’s so small that I will call it ‘Teenchy-Weenchy Cat’.
1945		E. Wilson 10 Jan. [synd. col.] Hill was a teeny-weeny bit astonished.
1947		S.J. Perelman ‘Hit Him Again, He’s Sober’ in Keep It Crisp 49: ‘Just one teentsy-weentsy sip,’ begged my hostess.
1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 287: Not a teensie speck.
1948		M. Fessier Clovis 144: I explain I won’t miss it a teensie-weensie bit.
1957		F.G. Cassidy ‘Iteration as a Word-forming Device in Jamaican Folk Speech’ in AS XXXII:1 49: Rhyming iteratives [...] as in [...] eentsy-weentsy, walky-talky, super-duper.
1958		E. Dundy Dud Avocado (1960) 159: It did just strike me as the teeniest weeniest bit careless.
1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 56: That red polish would have to go, even if her eensie-teensie pinkies went right along with it.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 11: Not even a teensy bit? [...] Not even a teensy-weensy bit?
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 8: Little favor [...] Just a weensy favor [Ibid.] 67: The most pretty fork of all the oyster forks is a eensie-beensie silver one.
1968		F. Exley Fan’s Notes 158: But surely, Bunny, you’ve got time for one more drink [...] just one teensie-weensie one?
1970		Time XCV 86/3: Wall Street Dads and Mothers with their sleek county look, their cashmeres, stationwagons, teensie-weensie drinkies.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 31: She read all the eensy-weensy-goo they handed out in tracts at Sunday school.
1975		N. De Mille Smack Man (1991) 87: You don’t scare me one fucking bit. Not one fucking eensy-teensy bit.
1975		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 297: Our school porter, he is a fool. / He’s only got a teeny-weeny tool.
1977		J. Olsen Secret of Fire Five 57: Forty-two years old, married twice, wears a teentsy-weentsy ribbon in her hair.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 150: There’s a teensy-weensy bit of Mai Tai left in the pitcher.
1982		A. Maupin Further Tales of the City (1984) 186: Doesn’t it strike you as just a teensy bit out of his way?
1986		E. Weiner Howard the Duck 121: Little teeny-tiny, eenie-weinie, itty-bitty, microgoddamscopic baby zucchini!
1987		Working Mother Aug. 100: [advert] I just couldn’t resist taking a teensie-weensie bite out of this petite little chicken leg.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 185: I know I do tend to run him down a liddle, tinsy, insy bit now and then.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 161: Oh, look at these eensey teensey litttle socki-wockies.
1994		F. Mac Anna Ship Inspector 140: Look at it. It’s just a teenchy weenchy kitten.
1995		(con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 47: Oprah Winfrey or the Donahue Show — which doesn’t mean shit. [...] It’s not going to change the world in an eensy-weensy bit at all. It’s just talk.
1997		in G. Paley et al. Conversations with Grace Paley 113: You think it’s hostile, that teensie-weensie handwriting?
1999		Guardian G2 2 Nov. 3: A teensy-weensy contradiction there, perhaps?
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 217: A teensy silver lining to this horrid cloud in your life.
2000		Observer Rev. 25 Jan. 16: Just a teensy bit of enterprising millennial spin.
2000		Observer Rev. 9 Apr. 16: We are a teensy-weensy parochial TV nation.
2004		S. Vreeland Forest Lover 378: Was she going to let a few teensie weensie man-eating jaws scare her?
2016		Observer (London) Mag. 16 Oct. 55/2: There might be a teensy-weensy conflict of interest.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘The cops don’t show up like that over teensy misunderstandings’.