butt

English has several words spelled butt: the verb to strike with the head, the target, the cask, and the thick end.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bʌt/^[4]

butt¹ strike with the head

Etymology

The verb is Middle English butten, borrowed from Anglo-Norman buter, boter (“to thrust”),^[1][2][5][3] of Germanic origin, from Frankish -: compare Old High German bōzan (“to beat”) (see beat).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strike or thrust: probably about 1200, in the Ormulum, in Barnhart;^[1] the 12th century in Hoad.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its use came to centre on striking with the head or horns.^[2][3] The noun, a push with the head, is from 1647,^[1] and full butt, head-on, follows from it.^[3] Butt in, to meddle, is American slang from 1900, in George Ade's Fables in Slang,^[1] and butt out is later slang.^[3] A second verb, to abut or join end to end, is partly from the noun butt and partly short for abut.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – to strike or thrust.^[1]
• 1647 – a push with the head.^[1]
• 1900 – butt in.^[1]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To hit or push with the head or horns; to ram.
2. To join or be joined end to end; to abut.
3. butt in: to interfere or interrupt.

Noun

1. A push or blow with the head or horns.

butt² target

Etymology

The target is Middle English but, borrowed from Old French but (“aim, goal, target”), probably merged with Old French bout, bot, end, both of Germanic origin;^[1][6] Hoad and SOED call the French word of unknown origin, perhaps influenced by French butte (“mound, target”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mark or mound for target practice: 1345–46 in Barnhart,^[1] the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[6]

Semantic evolution

A goal or object was a 16th-century sense.^[2] The target of ridicule or jokes is from the 1610s.^[6][2] In the plural, the butts are a range for shooting practice, and in grouse shooting a butt is a concealed stand.^[3]

Timeline

• 1345 – a target for archery.^[1]
• 16th century – a goal (obsolete).^[2]
• 1610s – an object of ridicule.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person or thing that is the target of jokes or ridicule.
2. A target for archery or shooting, or the mound behind it; in plural, a shooting range.

butt³ cask

Etymology

The cask is borrowed from Anglo-Norman but, bot (“barrel, wineskin”),^[6][1][2] from Late Latin buttis (“cask”),^[6][1] perhaps of Greek origin.^[1][2] It is related to bottle.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cask for wine or ale: 1385 as bote and 1393 as butt in Barnhart,^[1] the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[6]

Semantic evolution

A butt usually held 108 to 140 gallons, about two hogsheads, and was once a legal measure, though it varied greatly.^[6][3] It came to mean any cask (1626), especially a large barrel for rainwater.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 1385 – a cask for wine.^[1]
• 1626 – any cask or barrel.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large cask for wine, beer or water.
2. A former measure of liquid capacity, about two hogsheads.

Word family

• scuttlebutt

butt⁴ thick end, buttocks

Etymology

The thick end is inherited from Middle English butte, botte, probably related to buttuc (“end, small piece of land”) (see buttock),^[1][6] with cognates in Middle Dutch bot (“blunt”) and Old Norse butr (“log”).^[6][5] Word Origins calls it of uncertain origin.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The thicker end of a spear: about 1400, in Lydgate's Troy Book, in Barnhart;^[1] about 1400 in Etymonline.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The buttocks is a medieval sense,^[9] about 1450 in the OED,^[7] now chiefly American and informal.^[7][8] The trunk of a tree at its thickest is from 1601,^[7] and the stub of a smoked cigarette is by 1847.^[6] In American slang a butt is also a cigarette.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – the thick end of a spear.^[1][6]
• c. 1450 – the buttocks.^[7]
• 1601 – the base of a tree trunk.^[7]
• 1847 – a cigarette end.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The thicker or blunt end of something, such as the stock of a rifle.
2. The unused end of something, especially a cigarette; a stub.
3. (US, informal) The buttocks.

Word family

• butt-end

Related words

• butt in
• butt out
• buttinsky
• bottle
• butler
• buttock
• abut
• beat
• butte

Usage notes

Several further words butt are dialectal or obsolete: a flatfish, such as a sole or turbot (compare halibut);^[2][3] a ridge of ploughed land;^[3] a headland, surviving in the Butt of Lewis.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press