buttock

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English buttok,^[2][3][4] apparently formed from English butt + -ock, from butt, the thick end,^{[5][6][7][8][9]} although that noun is attested only later.^[5][8] Many dictionaries identify it with Old English buttuc (“end, small piece of land”),^{[10][11][12][2][13][14]} and Holthausen compares Old Norse bútr (“short log”), Low German butt (“stump”) and Middle Dutch botte (“knob”).^[13] Etymonline takes the group back through Proto-Germanic *butaz to Proto-Indo-European *bhau- (“to strike”),^[11] and Skeat compared Danish but, Swedish butt and Dutch bot (“blunt”).^[7] The Old English noun is recorded once,^[15] in a charter (Sawyer 977) with the plural buttucas, which the OED says could mean rounded slopes, an extension of the body sense;^[5] it thinks more likely a separate formation meaning a small strip of arable land, from the butt for such a strip, a sense supported by field names such as “Bottokes” in Berkshire (1189) and “le Buttokes” in Wiltshire (1328).^[5][16] Hoad and Collins read it as a rounded slope or end ridge.^[15][17] Johnson reported Skinner's guess that it comes from French aboutir.^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

Either of the two fleshy masses of the human rump: about 1300, in a life of Saint Michael,^[5][2] and the late 13th century according to Etymonline.^[11] The word is attested slightly earlier in a surname, Robertus Briddebuttok (1268).^[5]

Semantic evolution

The body sense has stayed the core of the word, used of animals from about 1390.^[5] Chaucer has it five times.^[19] Later uses include, in 1578, the rounded part of a ship's stern, which the OED compares with French fesses, and, in 1615, two rounded parts of the midbrain, after Ancient Greek γλούτια (gloútia) in Galen.^[5] A joint of meat from the haunch is recorded from 1593.^[5] Criminal slang used it for a prostitute, from 1641 in the OED and 1632 in Green's Dictionary of Slang,^[5][20] which sees the use implied in buttock-banqueting as early as 1555,^[20] and buttock and file from 1653 for a prostitute who also picks pockets.^[5] A throw in Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling is recorded from 1688 for the noun and 1823 for the verb,^[5][21] and in coal mining the word named a protruding layer of the coalface from 1883, in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Warwickshire.^[5][21] In Scots it also meant the remainder or bottom of something, and buttock-mail was a humorous name for the church fine for fornication.^[21] Johnson (1755) simply defines it as "The rump; the part near the tail".^[18]

Timeline

• 1268 – in the surname Briddebuttok.^[5]
• c. 1300 – either half of the human rump.^[5][2]
• c. 1390 – the corresponding part of an animal.^[5]
• 1578 – the convex part of a ship's stern.^[5][22]
• 1593 – a joint of meat from the haunch.^[5][22]
• 1607 – verb, to overtake a horse in a race (obsolete, rare).^[5][22]
• 1615 – in the plural, rounded parts of the midbrain.^[5]
• 1632 – slang, a prostitute.^[20] The OED's first record is from 1641.^[5][22]
• 1688 – a wrestling throw.^[5][22]
• 1823 – verb, to throw an opponent in wrestling.^[5][22]
• 1883 – in coal mining, a protruding layer of the coalface.^[5][22]

Meanings

Noun

1. Either of the two rounded, gluteal masses at the lower back of the human body: She had a large bruise on her left buttock.^[4][17][10]
2. buttocks: the rump of a person or an animal.^[4][10][5]
3. (shipbuilding) The convex rear part of a ship's hull above the waterline.^[4][5][12]
4. A joint of meat from the haunch, especially a round of beef.^[5]
5. (wrestling) A throw made by bringing the opponent over the hip.^[5][12][21]
6. (coal mining) A protruding layer of coal at a longwall face.^[5][12][21]
7. (obsolete) In criminal slang, a prostitute.^[5][20]

Verb

1. (wrestling) To throw an opponent with a buttock.^[4][5][12]
2. (obsolete, 1607) To overtake a horse in a race.^[5][12]

Word family

• buttocked

Related words

• butt

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Smith, A. H. (1956), English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols. (English Place-Name Society 25–26), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
20. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
21. ^ a b c d e 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)
22. ^ a b c d e f g Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)