shutter
Pronunciation
- UK: /ˈʃʌtəː/[1]
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
- 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]
- 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]
- A hinged cover protecting a picture or altarpiece.[8][2]
- One of the louvres of the swell-box of an organ.[2][3]
- A person or thing that shuts.[8][2]
- put up the shutters: to close a business for the day, or for good.[9][3]
Verb
- To close with shutters: They shuttered the house before the storm.[8][2]
- To close a business or establishment, for a time or permanently.[8]
Word family
- shutterless
- shutterbug
- shutter-priority
- shutter speed
Related words
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
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
- ^ 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.
- ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
- ^ 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)