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cuff

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Pronunciation

cuff1 end of a sleeve

Etymology

The end of a sleeve is inherited from Middle English cuffe, also coffe, which first meant a mitten or glove;[2][3][4][5] its origin is uncertain.[3][6][7][8][9][10] The OED and Barnhart note its likeness in form to Medieval Latin cuphia or cuffia (“cap, head covering”), found in Old English as cuffie, and to French coiffe, the source of coif, but see no connection in sense.[3][4] Etymonline nevertheless suggests the Medieval Latin word, itself of uncertain and perhaps ultimately Greek origin,[11] as does the MED,[2] and Merriam-Webster takes the word as perhaps an altered form of Middle French coife.[5] Klein rejects any link with coif.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mitten or glove: 1362, in Langland's Piers Plowman, where a ploughman puts on his mittens against the cold in his fingers.[3][2] Barnhart dates the word before 1376.[4]

Semantic evolution

The glove sense lasted until the 15th century: about 1410 a hunting treatise says that a wolf's skin is warm for making mittens, and the OED's last record is from 1467.[2][3] The Shorter Oxford notes that it survived in Canadian dialect.[9] From 1522 the word named the ornamental end of a sleeve, either the sleeve turned back or a band of linen or lace sewn on;[3][4][5][11] from 1663, in Butler's Hudibras, a fetter for the wrist, a handcuff;[3][11][12] the verb "to put cuffs on, to handcuff" follows in 1693.[3][5] The part of a long glove or gauntlet that covers the wrist is recorded from 1860.[3] The turned-up hem of a trouser leg is dated by 1896 in Etymonline,[11] but only from 1911 in the OED and Barnhart, chiefly in the United States;[3][4] in Britain it is called a turn-up.[7] Etymonline dates cuff links from 1887, Barnhart from 1897.[11][4] The phrase off the cuff, unrehearsed, is American and recorded from 1938; it is explained as speaking from notes written on one's shirt cuff.[3][11] In American slang on the cuff, on credit, goes back to 1896, from the practice of pencilling debts on a celluloid cuff.[13] In African American usage the verb has meant since 1998 to keep a partner under close control, and since 1999 to commit to a steady relationship;[3] Collins records cuffing season for autumn and winter, when single people are thought likely to look for a partner.[7]

Timeline

  • 1362 – a mitten or glove (obsolete after 1467).[3][2]
  • 1522 – the ornamental end of a sleeve.[3][4][5]
  • 1663 – a handcuff.[3][11]
  • 1693 – verb, to put cuffs on; to handcuff.[3][5]
  • 1860 – the wrist part of a long glove or gauntlet.[3]
  • 1887 – cuff links.[11]
  • 1896 – the turn-up of a trouser leg, in Etymonline (1911 in the OED);[11][3] on the cuff, on credit, in American slang.[13]
  • 1938 – off the cuff, extempore.[3][11]
  • 1998 – verb, in African American usage, to keep a partner under close control.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The part of a sleeve at the wrist, often turned back or finished with a separate band: He rolled back his shirt cuffs before washing up.[7][5][3]
  2. The part of a glove or gauntlet that reaches over the wrist.[7][5][3]
  3. (chiefly U.S., Canada and Australia) The turned-up fold at the bottom of a trouser leg; a turn-up.[7][5][3]
  4. A handcuff, usually in the plural.[3][11]
  5. off the cuff (informal): without preparation; improvised.[7][3][11]
  6. on the cuff (U.S. slang): on credit.[13]
  7. (obsolete, 1362–1467) A mitten or glove.[3][2][9]

Verb

  1. To provide with a cuff or cuffs: deeply cuffed trousers.[5][9][3]
  2. To put handcuffs on.[5][3][13]

Word family

  • cuffless
  • French cuff
  • rotator cuff

cuff2 blow with the open hand

Etymology

The verb meaning to strike is of uncertain origin.[3][4][7][8] The OED compares the rogues' cant word German kuffen (“to thrash”) and Swedish kuffa (“to thrust, push”),[3][9] and Barnhart and Etymonline take it as perhaps borrowed from the Swedish verb;[4][11] Dictionary.com also compares Low German kuffen (“to push, shove”).[14] Merriam-Webster and Klein derive it instead from cuff1 in its old sense of glove, Klein explaining it as first meaning to strike with a glove,[5][10] which Barnhart thinks less likely.[4] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford suggest it may imitate the sound of a blow.[12][9] Johnson had derived it from Italian zuffa (“a battle”).[15] The noun, a blow, is formed from the verb.[3][4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strike with the fist or the open hand, to buffet: 1530, in Palsgrave's French–English Lesclarcissement: "I cuffe one, I pomell hym about the heed".[3][4][16]

Semantic evolution

The noun, a blow with the fist or the open hand, follows in 1570, in Levens's Manipulus Vocabulorum (1560s in Etymonline).[3][4][11] From 1596, in Spenser, the verb could mean to exchange blows, to fight or scuffle,[3][5] and to be at cuffs or to go to cuffs was to be or come to blows;[3][9] Shakespeare uses it in Hamlet,[3][15][9] and the Shorter Oxford calls these phrases now rare.[9] The verb was soon used of other buffeting forces than a hand,[3][5] as in Tennyson's "cuffed by the gale".[5] From 1626 to 1725 it was used of birds striking with their wings in a fight,[3] and Johnson (1755) notes the noun of birds fighting with their talons.[15] In Exmoor dialect from 1746 to cuff a tale was to talk it over or tell it.[3] In African American slang from 1897 it meant to hit or to fight.[13]

Timeline

  • 1530 – verb, to strike with the fist or open hand.[3][4][5]
  • 1570 – noun, a blow with the hand.[3][4][5]
  • 1596 – intransitive, to exchange blows, scuffle.[3]
  • c. 1611 – of wind and waves, to buffet.[3]
  • before 1616 – at cuffs, fighting, in Hamlet.[3]
  • 1626 – of birds, to strike with the wings (obsolete by 1725).[3]
  • 1746 – dialect, to talk over or tell a tale.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To hit with the open hand; to slap or buffet: She cuffed the puppy lightly on the nose.[5][3][9]
  2. Of wind, waves and the like, to strike or batter.[3][5][9]
  3. To fight or scuffle.[5][3]

Noun

  1. A blow with the hand, especially an open one: a cuff round the ear.[5][3][9]
  2. at cuffs, go to cuffs (now rare): fighting; to come to blows.[9][3][15]

Word family

  • fisticuff
  • off-the-cuff
  • coif
  • handcuff
  • scuff
  • scruff

Usage notes

Two minor words share the spelling.[3][9] Cuff, an old term of contempt for an old man and especially a miser, is recorded from 1616 and is of unknown origin; the OED compares cuffin,[3][9][13] while Merriam-Webster thinks it probably an altered form of a Romani word for a thing or person.[5] The Scots cuff of the neck, the nape, recorded from 1740, is a variant of scuff.[3][9][17]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ 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 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  15. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  17. ^ 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)