hutch

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English huche, also hucche,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French huche (“chest, trunk, coffer”),^{[3][5][4][6][7]} also huge,^[3][4] from Medieval Latin hūtica (“chest”),^[3][5][6][4] recorded in the 11th century.^[3] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century, for a chest or coffer, a stand for selling goods and a community chest.^[8] The further origin of the Medieval Latin word is unknown.^{[3][9][10][11]} Some have connected it with words for keeping and guarding, such as Old High German huota (“care, keeping”) and German hüten (“to watch, guard”),^[3][12][13] the American Heritage Dictionary calls a Germanic origin possible,^[6] and Barnhart compares Old High German hutta, the source of hut.^[14] Dictionary.com takes the English word instead as a variant of Middle English whucce, from Old English hwicce (“chest”), with its spelling influenced by the French word, which it holds to be unrelated;^[15] the Middle English Dictionary also compares whicche.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A chest for money, clothing or other goods: about 1200, in Vices and Virtues ("Hwi is te ðin hucche trewer ðanne ich?", why is your hutch truer than I?).^[2][4][5] The OED's first record is Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne (1303).^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a hutch was a chest for money, relics, clothing, bedding or food.^[2] From about 1315 to 1400 it was also used of the biblical Ark of God.^[3][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as a corn chest.^[16] The sense of a box-like pen for animals, as in rabbit hutch, is recorded in 1607, in Topsell's Historie of Foure-footed Beastes,^[3] about 1600 in Etymonline,^[5] but Barnhart finds it before 1398.^[4] The same book of 1607 has it for a small cramped room or hut, used contemptuously or humorously of a small house.^[3][4] Technical senses followed: a salmon trap (1602), a kneading trough (1658), a box trap (1669), a wagon or truck in farming and mining (1742) and a box for washing ore (1881).^[3] A cupboard for food or dishes is recorded from 1671,^[4] or from the 1670s in Etymonline;^[5] the old sense of a storage chest now survives mainly in North America, as a sideboard or dresser with open shelves above.^[9][10] In northern dialect the toon hutch was the town's treasure chest, and the word could also mean a coffin.^[17] In Australian slang a hutch is a home or house.^[18] The verb, to store in a hutch, is recorded from 1574; since 1876 it has also meant to crouch or squat.^[3][10]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a chest or coffer for storing things.^[2][4][5]
• c. 1315 – the Ark of God (obsolete by 1400).^[3]
• 1574 – verb, to store in a hutch.^[3]
• 1602 – a salmon trap.^[3]
• 1607 – a box-like pen for an animal; a small cramped dwelling.^[3][4]
• 1658 – a kneading trough.^[3]
• 1671 – a cupboard for food or dishes.^[4][5]
• 1742 – a wagon or truck used in farming and mining.^[3]
• 1876 – verb, to crouch or squat.^[3]
• 1881 – a box for washing ore.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pen or coop for small animals, especially rabbits, usually of wood and wire mesh.^[19][20][21]
2. A cupboard with drawers or doors and open shelves on top, often used for dishes; chiefly North American.^[19][20][10]
3. A chest or bin for storage.^[19][20][3]
4. A small or flimsy house; a hut or shack: They lived in a draughty hutch by the railway.^[19][20][21]
5. A low car or cart for carrying coal or ore in a mine.^[20][21][3]
6. A trough, especially one for kneading dough or for washing ore.^[21][3]

Verb

1. (archaic) To store in a hutch; to hoard.^[20][3][10]
2. To wash ore in a hutch.^[20][3]
3. To crouch or huddle.^[10][3]

Usage notes

An obsolete adjective hutch, humped or hunched, chiefly in hutch back, is recorded from 1624 to 1668; it is apparently a variant of hulch.^[3][20]

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 m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
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)
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
20. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
21. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins