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butt

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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

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

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