My heart goes pit-a-pat. Throbs, palpitates. “Pat” is a gentle blow (Welsh, ffat), and “pit” is a mere ricochet expletive. We have a vast number of such ricochet words, as “fiddle - faddle,” “harum - scarum,” “ding-dong,” etc.
“Anything like the sound of a rat
Makes my heart go pit-a-pat.”
Browning: Pied Piver of IIamenlin.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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