mutt

Etymology

It is from English a clipping of muttonhead, a stupid person,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} which is recorded in American English from 1803^[9][2] and was formed from mutton and head after mutton-headed.^[2] The insult draws on the supposed stupidity of sheep.^[10][11] Etymonline and Barnhart give the clipping as probable,^[9][12] and Etymonline compares meathead.^[9] Etymonline also notes that the dog sense is recorded first and may be the same clipping made separately, since muttonhead was also used of stupid animals, or a word of unknown origin; it quotes Wright's “English Dialect Dictionary” (1900) for “Mutton!” as a word for scolding a dog, probably alluding to sheep-worrying.^[9] Barnhart likewise allows that the dog sense developed from the human one or arose separately.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dog: "That dog ain't no mutt", in Robert W. Chambers's The Haunts of Men (1898).^[9] The OED's first record is from 1899, for a racehorse, especially a slow one, in C. L. Cullen's Tales of Ex-tanks;^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the sense of a stupid person to 1899,^[4] while the American Heritage Dictionary and Barnhart find it first in 1901.^[10][12]

Semantic evolution

The word arose in American slang around 1900 with the same senses as muttonhead, a stupid or blundering person,^[10][12][2] and was soon used contemptuously of a horse and of a dog.^[10][2] By 1910 dog fanciers' publications used it for an animal that was not purebred,^[9] and the sense of a mongrel is now the main one.^[10][7][4] Of a person it can also mean simply a fellow, without contempt.^[2][5] Mutt and Jeff, from the tall Augustus Mutt and the short Jeff of Bud Fisher's comic strip, which began in 1907, was used by 1917 for a pair of stupid men or an ill-matched pair.^[9][5] Since 1983 mutt has also been a derogatory word for an unattractive woman.^[2]

Timeline

• 1898 – a dog, especially a mongrel.^[9] The OED's first record is from 1900, and Barnhart dates the sense to 1906.^[2][12]
• 1899 – a racehorse, especially a slow one, or a horse in poor condition.^[2]
• 1900 – an awkward, ignorant or blundering person; a fool.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date it to 1901.^[9][12]
• 1910 – a dog that is not purebred, in dog fanciers' publications.^[9]
• 1917 – Mutt and Jeff, a pair of stupid men.^[9]
• 1983 – an unattractive woman.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mongrel dog; a cur: A friendly mutt followed the children home from the park.^{[10][7][4][2]}
2. (slang) A stupid or foolish person.^{[10][7][4][13]}
3. (slang) A person; a fellow.^[2][5]

Related words

• muttonhead
• mutton

Usage notes

In British rhyming slang Mutt and Jeff means deaf,^[5] and it is the source of the adjective mutt, deaf, recorded from 1973.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary remarks that the word for a mongrel was clipped from a word about sheep, not from the sheep themselves.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster