chute

Etymology

It is borrowed from French chute (“fall”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} an alteration of Old French cheoite (“a fall”), the feminine past participle of cheoir (“to fall”) used as a noun,^{[3][4][6][7][8]} reshaped after the other past participle chu.^[4][5][8][9] Klein derives cheoite from Vulgar Latin *cadectus, formed on the model of collēctus,^[8] from *cadeō, for Latin cadō (“to fall”),^[6][5][4] from Proto-Indo-European *kad- (“to fall”).^[3][4] Barnhart traces the word into American English to contact with early French-speaking explorers and settlers, citing the spelling “chute a Blondeau” in a diary of 1793.^[5] In North America it took over senses that belonged to shoot, and the OED regards it as a mixture of the French noun and the English one;^{[2][3][6][10]} Barnhart notes that it replaced an earlier shoot (before 1613) and gave the variant spelling shute (1790).^[5] In the sense "parachute", from 1919 or 1920, it is a shortening of parachute, sometimes written 'chute.^{[3][2][5][4][7]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A fall of water, a rapid descent in a river: 1725, in Defoe's A New Voyage Round the World.^[2][3] Barnhart dates the word to 1804 in American English,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the early 19th century.^[7][10]

Semantic evolution

The French word, meaning a fall of water or the descent of a canal lock, was first used in North America of rapids and falls.^[2][10] It then spread to inclined troughs and passages down which things are dropped, a meaning Etymonline dates to 1804,^[3] and absorbed senses of shoot, which is still the usual spelling for some of them in England.^[2][6][11] Weekley links this confusion to phrases such as to shoot the rapids and to shoot coals.^[11] Later uses include a fish-way (1871),^[2] a narrow passage for cattle or sheep (1871 in Etymonline, 1881 in the OED),^[3][2] a steep slope for tobogganing (1884),^[2] and a slide at a fair or a pool (1908), with the phrase chute the chutes.^[2][12] The verb, to send down a chute, is recorded from 1884.^[2][12] After the First World War the word was also used as a clipped form of parachute (1919 in Etymonline, 1920 in the OED and Barnhart).^[3][2][5] In the Isle of Wight a chute was a steep road or cutting down a cliff;^[2][13] in slang it has meant the rectum, from 1945.^[14]

Timeline

• 1725 – a fall of water, a rapid in a river.^[2][3]
• 1804 – an inclined trough or tube.^[3][5]
• 1829 – a channel down which coal, ore or grain is sent.^[2]
• 1846 – in the Isle of Wight, a steep cutting down a cliff.^[2]
• 1871 – a fish-way; a narrow passage for cattle.^[2][3]
• 1884 – a steep slope for tobogganing; verb, to send down a chute.^[2][12]
• 1908 – a fairground slide, with the phrase chute the chutes.^[2]
• 1919 – a parachute.^[3] The OED and Barnhart date this sense to 1920.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sloping channel or vertical passage down which things such as water, parcels, laundry or coal are dropped or slid: She sent the bags down the rubbish chute.^[15][12][2]
2. A steep slope or slide, as for toboggans, or into a swimming pool.^[15][2]
3. A narrow passage through which cattle or sheep are driven one at a time, as for branding.^[15][2]
4. A rapid or waterfall in a river.^[15][12][2]
5. (informal) A parachute.^[4][7][2]

Verb

1. To send something down a chute.^[12][2]
2. To go down a chute, or as if in one.^[12]

Word family

• chute-the-chute
• shoot-the-chute

Related words

• shoot
• shute
• parachute
• cadence
• case
• chance

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 x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins