Etymologically
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gutter

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɡʌt.ə/[1]
  • US: /ˈɡʌt.ɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English goter, also guter and gutter,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman gotere,[5][6][7][8] and Old French gotiere, also goutiere and gutiere (modern French gouttière),[9][6][2][10] from goute (“a drop”) (modern goutte),[5][2][10][9] which goes back to Latin gutta (“a drop”).[5][11][8] Hoad and Ayto give the intermediate form as Vulgar Latin *guttāria.[6][8] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1160–74, for a gutter or spout of a roof and for a drain.[12] Related Romance words are Spanish gotera and Portuguese goteira.[9] Ayto sums it up: a gutter is etymologically something along which drops of water run.[8] The verb, Middle English guteren, is formed from the noun.[2][9][5] Johnson derived the noun, wrongly, from Latin guttur (“a throat”).[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A watercourse, natural or artificial: the OED's first record is in the Early English Psalter, before 1300, and in the 14th and 15th centuries the word often rendered Latin stillicidium, a dripping.[9] Barnhart has goteris in 1280 for a channel along the side of a street, and the surname Gutere in 1269.[14] Etymonline gives both meanings, a watercourse and a drainage channel along a street, from the late 13th century.[5]

Semantic evolution

The trough under the eaves of a roof appears in a Latin account of 1333 as guttur,[3][14] and in the OED from 1355.[9] The channel along the side of a street, to carry away the surface water, is recorded from 1408,[9] and a channel for dirt, a sink, from about 1440; that sense now survives only in dialect.[9] In the 16th century the word was used for a furrow or track made by running water,[15][9][5] from which, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, the main modern meaning developed.[15] The street gutter became the figure of a low and squalid way of life: Etymonline dates the sense "low, profane" from 1818,[5] and the OED the gutter as the haunt of people of low birth from about 1846.[9] Gutter journalism appeared in the mid 19th century and the gutter press by its end.[15] Printers used the word from 1841.[5] The verb was first transitive, "to make gutters in" (1387), then "to flow in streams" (1582).[9][2] Of a candle it is recorded from 1706, from the channel that the melting wax forms down one side as it runs off;[9][5][8][16] hence a guttering flame is one that flickers as if about to go out.[8] In the dialects Wright records gutter for a drain, a small narrow stream, a common field drain in Somerset, a sink in East Anglia, and a ravine between hills in Shropshire.[17]

Timeline

  • 1269 – the surname Gutere.[14]
  • before 1300 – a watercourse.[9]
  • 1333 – a trough at the eaves.[3][14]
  • 1387 – verb, to make gutters or channels in.[9]
  • 1408 – a channel at the side of a street.[9]
  • c. 1440 – a sink, a channel for filth.[9]
  • 1582 – verb, to stream down.[9]
  • 1586 – a furrow made by running water.[9][5]
  • 1706 – of a candle, to melt away down a channel on one side.[9][5]
  • 1818 – figurative, low, vulgar.[5]
  • 1841 – in printers' use.[5]
  • c. 1846 – the gutter as the haunt of the poor and ill-bred.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A shallow trough fixed along the eaves of a roof, or a channel between two sloping roofs, to carry off rainwater.[18][2][9]
  2. A channel along the kerb or the middle of a street that carries away surface water: The wind blew dead leaves into the gutter.[18][9]
  3. A channel or gully worn by running water.[2][9]
  4. Either of the two channels running along the sides of a bowling lane.[18][19]
  5. In printing, the white space between two facing pages of a book, or between columns of type.[18][19]
  6. the gutter: a degraded or squalid way of life, or the lowest level of society.[19][9]
  7. (archaic) A watercourse or brook.[2][9]

Adjective

  1. Belonging to or suited to the gutter; marked by extreme vulgarity or indecency: gutter language.[2][15]

Verb

  1. Of a candle, to melt away quickly as the wax runs down a channel on one side; of a flame, to flicker and burn low.[9][2][8]
  2. To flow in streams or rivulets: Rain guttered down the window.[2][9]
  3. To cut or wear channels or furrows in; to provide with gutters.[2][9]

Word family

  • gutterlike
  • guttersnipe
  • gutter out
  • gout
  • guttering

Usage notes

A gutter is also a person who guts fish or animals, formed from gut with the suffix -er and recorded from the late 16th century.[7][2][9] In Devon and Somerset dialect gutter also meant to eat greedily.[17]

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c 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)
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b 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 d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  15. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  17. ^ 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)
  18. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin