butcher

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman bocher,^[2][3][4][5] a variant of bouchier (“a slaughterer of animals; an executioner”),^[2][6][7][8] formed on bouc (“he-goat”) with the suffix that became -er,^[2][3][9] so originally apparently a slaughterer of goats.^[2][5][8] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1184, also as a surname.^[10] The Old French noun for a goat is probably of Celtic origin, akin to Middle Irish bocc (“he-goat”) and Welsh bwch,^{[6][11][12][13]} and to buck;^[8][14] Etymonline also allows a Frankish source,^[5] and Barnhart thinks Celtic and Frankish words fused.^[7] Weekley compares Italian beccaio (“butcher”), from becco (“he-goat”).^[15] The Old English word for a butcher was flǣscmangere (“a dealer in flesh”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who slaughters animals for food and prepares their meat: a1325, in the Statutes of the Realm,^[2] before 1300 in Barnhart, in Kyng Alisaunder, spelled bocher.^[16][7] The modern spelling appears gradually after the 1550s.^[16]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that a butcher was at first more a slaughterman than a seller of meat;^[14] the sense "a person who sells meat" now predominates.^[13][2] The figurative sense, someone who kills people brutally or indiscriminately, arose quickly:^[14] the OED dates it to c1450 (a text of about 1350),^[2][16] Etymonline to the 1520s.^[5] The obsolete sense "executioner" is recorded from 1483 to 1910.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the word as one that kills animals to sell their flesh, and as one delighted with blood.^[17] The verb, to slaughter brutally, is from 1562,^[2][11][5] and "to bungle or spoil", as a text or a piece of music, from 1659,^[2] the 1640s in Etymonline.^[5] A butcher's shop is recorded from 1588.^[2] In slang a butcher was an incompetent surgeon from 1759,^[2][18] and in the United States a seller of sweets and newspapers on trains (1867);^[2][18] in Australia it is a glass of beer (1889).^[2][18] The rhyming slang have a butcher's, short for butcher's hook, a look, is recorded from the 1930s.^[14][18] In dialect the butcher-bird was the red-backed shrike.^[19]

Timeline

• before 1300 – bocher, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[16]
• a1325 – a slaughterer of animals, a dealer in meat.^[2]
• c1450 – a brutal or indiscriminate killer.^[2]
• 1483 – (obsolete) an executioner.^[2]
• 1562 – verb, to slaughter brutally.^[2]
• 1588 – a butcher's shop.^[2]
• 1659 – verb, to bungle or spoil.^[2]
• 1759 – (slang) an incompetent surgeon.^[2]
• 1867 – (US) a seller of refreshments on trains.^[2]
• 1889 – (Australian slang) a glass of beer.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who cuts up and sells meat; also, a person who slaughters animals for food.
2. A person who kills brutally or indiscriminately.
3. A person who does a job clumsily and ruins it; a botcher.
4. (Australian slang) A glass of beer.

Verb

1. To slaughter and cut up animals for food: They butcher a pig every autumn.
2. To kill people brutally or in large numbers.
3. To spoil or botch something through incompetence: The singer butchered the anthem.

Word family

• butcherer
• butcherly
• butcherbird
• butcher block
• butcher knife
• butcher paper
• butcher's broom
• butcher shop

Related words

• buck
• butchery
• butch

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)