Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a Khoikhoi.

1836		Leeds Intelligencer 14 May 4/2: I see three Hottentots havce been appionted Justices at the cape of Good Hope [...] Alderman Tottie’s case is the worst.
1848		H. Ward Five Years in Kaffirland I 287: Those gallant little Totties are an untiring, determined band. How little do we know in England of the smartness and courage of the Hottentot!
1852		Oxford U. & City Herald 14 Aug. 3/1: The kaffirs were assisted by the Totties in the fight.
1863		L. Duff Gordon 19 Apr. Letters from the Cape (1875) 331: I tried to get a real ‘tottie’ or ‘Hotentotje,’ but the people were too drunk to remember.
1873		F. Boyle To Cape for Diamonds 282: What was it the Totty said about a robbery in camp?
1889		H.A. Bryden Kloof and Karroo 82: If you want a funny story, you may always get one from a Tottie, on the subject of these creatures.
1892		Graphic (London) 24 Dec. 6/1: He would be hers until an angry ostrich or a drunken Totty (Hottentot) made an end of him.
1908		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 28 Oct. 6/1: Between the ‘Totty’ and the Kaffir a deadly hatred exists.
1913		C. Pettman Africanderisms.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1852		M.B. Hudson Features in S. Afr. Frontier Life 25: By the side of the road, In a neat little garden’ a Tottie abode.
1890		Shields Dly Gaz. 13 May 2/4: The other settlers were already seated at the table that the Hottentots or [...] ‘tottie’ servants had laid.
1941		C.R. Prance Tante Rebella and her Friends (1951) 143: Disgustin’ I calls it; fair gives me the ’ump to see that feller [...] a-talkin’ to that old Tottie girl just as if she was white.

3. any black or esp. ‘coloured’ person.

1900		O. Osborne In Land of Boers 41: The Malays and Totties were quite a new thing in humanity to us [DSAE].
1947		A. Delius Young Traveller in S. Afr. 36: ‘Good Lord, we wouldn’t play with Totties!’ Paul cried. ‘Black people, and coloured people aren’t allowed to mix with the white people.’.
1964		G. Campbell Old Dusty 14: No other society than the mongrel dog and a few fowls and an occasional Cape Tottie [DSAE].