cutlery

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cutellerie, also cotellerie and cutleri,^[2] borrowed from Old French coutelerie (“cutler's art, knife-making”),^[3][4][2][5] modern coutellerie.^[3][4] The Merriam-Webster Unabridged has it through Middle French.^[6] The French word is made either from coutelier (“cutler”), the source of cutler,^[3][7][8] or from coutel (“knife”) and the suffix -erie.^[5][6][4] It goes back to Latin cultellus (“small knife”), a diminutive of culter (“knife, ploughshare”),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *skel- (“to cut”).^[4] The same Latin diminutive is behind cutlass, which Etymonline notes is not related to cut.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cutler's craft: 1340, in a will enrolled in the Court of Husting, naming the implements of the craft of “cotellerie”.^[2] Etymonline has the middle of the 14th century,^[4] and Dictionary.com 1300–50.^[9] The OED entry, published in 1893 and not fully revised, starts at about 1449, in Pecock's Repressor.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the trade, and Pecock in about 1449 set it beside the goldsmith's craft.^[2][3] From the craft it passed to the goods: articles made or sold by cutlers, such as knives and scissors, from 1624.^[3] Table use came last: knives, forks and spoons for eating or serving from 1821 in the OED,^[3] while Etymonline dates "knives and cutting utensils collectively" to 1836.^[4] Collins lists this sense first, and the Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares flatware.^[10][6] In American slang from 1846 cutlery was any edged weapon, usually a knife, and in British underworld slang of about 1850 it was committing murder, with Cutler's Alms-house for the condemned cell.^[11]

Timeline

• 1340 – the cutler's craft, as cotellerie.^[2]
• 1624 – articles made or sold by cutlers, as knives and scissors.^[3]
• 1821 – knives, forks and spoons used at table.^[3] Etymonline dates the collective sense to 1836.^[4]
• 1846 – American slang, an edged weapon, usually a knife.^[11]
• c. 1850 – British underworld slang, committing murder.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Implements for eating and serving food, such as knives, forks and spoons: Put the cutlery in the top drawer.^[10][6][3]
2. Edged or cutting tools, such as knives, shears and surgical instruments.^[6][10][3]
3. The art or business of a cutler.^[10][6][3]
4. (slang) An edged weapon, usually a knife.^[11]

Related words

• cutlass
• cutler
• cut

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com