shutter

Etymology

It is formed from English shut + -er.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Shut is from Old English scyttan (“to bolt, shut”), from Proto-West Germanic *skutjan,^[4][2] and is related to shoot.^[2][4] Partridge treats it under shoot.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who shuts, with an adverb, as shutter up: 1542, in Henry Brinkelow's Lamentacion.^[2][8] Etymonline also dates the sense "one who shuts" to the 1540s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The general sense, a person or thing that shuts, is the one Johnson (1755) gave first, with "a cover; a door" second.^[6] The window sense, a movable wooden or iron screen, is recorded from 1720, in Samuel Sewall's diary;^[2][4] Etymonline takes it as probably short for window-shutters, recorded from the 1680s,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford dates the panel sense to the late 17th century.^[3] Hinged covers protecting a picture are recorded from before 1660,^[2] and in the theatre a shutter was one of a pair of flats run in from the wings (mid 17th century).^[3] The photographic sense, a device that opens and closes the aperture of a lens, dates from 1862,^[2][4] and later technical senses followed in founding (1856), organ-building (1880) and engines (1918).^[2] The verb, to close with shutters, is from 1826,^[2][4][8] and the phrase put up the shutters means to close a business for the day or for good.^[3][9]

Timeline

• 1542 – one who shuts, with adverbs (shutter up).^[2]
• a1660 – a hinged cover for a picture.^[2]
• 1680s – window-shutters.^[4]
• 1720 – a movable screen for a window.^[2]
• 1826 – verb, to close with a shutter.^[2][8]
• 1843 – a shutter used as a makeshift stretcher, in Dickens's Christmas Carol.^[2]
• 1862 – in photography, the device that regulates the exposure.^[2][4]
• 1880 – the louvres of an organ's swell-box.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A movable cover or screen, often hinged and one of a pair, for a window, to keep out light or for privacy or security: She closed the shutters against the afternoon sun.^[9][8][2]
2. In photography, a device in a camera that opens and closes to let light reach the film or sensor for a set time.^[9][8][2]
3. A hinged cover protecting a picture or altarpiece.^[8][2]
4. One of the louvres of the swell-box of an organ.^[2][3]
5. A person or thing that shuts.^[8][2]
6. put up the shutters: to close a business for the day, or for good.^[9][3]

Verb

1. To close with shutters: They shuttered the house before the storm.^[8][2]
2. To close a business or establishment, for a time or permanently.^[8]

Word family

• shutterless
• shutterbug
• shutter-priority
• shutter speed

Related words

• shut
• shoot
• shudder

Usage notes

In Scots and northern English dialect a verb shutter (also shuther) meant to slide down a slope or fall in a heap, like loose earth.^[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 p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ 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)