cutter

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cuttere, also kittere,^[2][3] formed from English cut + -er, a person or thing that cuts.^{[4][5][2][6][7]} The OED notes that surnames such as Alexander Cuter (1279) and Adam Cutter (1379) probably imply earlier use,^[4] and the MED's first record is the name of Walterus le Kittere in a Pipe Roll of 1177.^[2][5] The verb is itself of uncertain origin, perhaps from Old English *cyttan, an unrecorded form, or from a Scandinavian source.^[5][4] The name of the boat is apparently a specific use of the same word, probably referring to the vessel's speed, as with clipper, or perhaps to a feature of its construction;^[4][8] Etymonline thinks of a boat cutting through the water.^[5] Weekley considered a link with a boat name of the Malabar coast, which the OED had rejected.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who cuts or shapes things, a craftsman such as a tailor or barber: the Wycliffite Bible (before 1382) has the first record of the common noun,^[4][2] and a glossary of before 1425 renders Latin cissor as “a kutter or a taylor”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word was used of a castrator of animals (1562),^[4] of a cutting tooth or incisor (1528–1786),^[4][10] of a blade or cutting tool (before 1533; the 1630s in Etymonline),^[4][5] and of a person who cuts out the cloth for garments (1594), once also a tailor in general.^[4] A cutter was also a cut-throat or swaggering bully (1563),^[4] and in Elizabethan slang a braggart (1579) or a pickpocket (1589);^[11] the Spitalfields silk weavers who rioted over their pay in the late 1760s were called cutters.^[4] The naval sense appears in 1712, of a ship's boat for rowing and sailing,^[4] and the word named a fast single-masted boat by 1733;^[4] Etymonline dates the boat to 1745 and the single-masted vessel to 1762.^[5] Johnson (1755) explained it as “a nimble boat that cuts the water”.^[10] In the 19th century it was used of a light horse-drawn sleigh in North America (1803), of a steam or motor patrol vessel of a customs service or coastguard, especially in the United States (1838),^[4] and of the device that cuts the grooves of a sound recording (1883).^[4] In the 20th century it came to mean a person who self-harms by cutting (1969).^[4] In dialect a cutter was an engraver in the north of England, a reaping machine in Scotland, Lincolnshire, Berkshire and Hampshire, a slate pencil in Ireland and a small whisky bottle in Scotland.^[12]

Timeline

• 1177 – Walterus le Kittere, a surname.^[2]
• before 1382 – a person who cuts or shapes things.^[4]
• 1528 – a cutting tooth (obsolete by 1786).^[4]
• before 1533 – a blade or cutting tool.^[4]
• 1562 – a castrator of animals.^[4]
• 1563 – a cut-throat or swaggerer.^[4]
• 1594 – a person who cuts out cloth for garments.^[4]
• 1712 – a ship's boat for rowing and sailing.^[4]
• 1733 – a fast single-masted boat.^[4]
• 1803 – in North America, a light sleigh.^[4]
• 1838 – a customs or coastguard patrol vessel.^[4]
• 1883 – a device that cuts the grooves of a recording.^[4]
• 1969 – a person who self-harms by cutting.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person or thing that cuts, especially a person who cuts out the cloth for clothes: She worked as a cutter for a tailoring firm.
2. A tool or machine for cutting, or the cutting part of one: a tile cutter.
3. A single-masted sailing vessel with two or more headsails and its mast set further aft than that of a sloop.
4. A ship's boat, rowed, sailed or powered, for carrying stores or passengers.
5. A small armed vessel used to enforce customs regulations; in the United States, a coastguard vessel.
6. (North America) A light horse-drawn sleigh.
7. A person who deliberately harms themselves by cutting.
8. A pig of about 68 to 82 kg, from which fillets and larger joints are cut.

Word family

• canecutter
• cookie-cutter
• daisy-cutter
• grasscutter
• leaf-cutter
• stonecutter
• woodcutter

Related words

• cut
• cutting

Usage notes

Other words spelled cutter have separate origins: a northern English and Scots dialect verb meaning to whisper, to coo or to fuss over someone, probably an alteration of cuittle,^[4][12][6] and the Cutter number of library cataloguing, named after the American librarian Charles Ammi Cutter.^[4][6]

References

1. ^ a b 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. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b 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)