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Etymology and origin of the English word tut

Three words are spelled tut: the base or seat of a stoolball game, of unknown origin, from 1519; the exclamation of disapproval, from before 1529; and a dialect word for piece-work, also of unknown origin.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

tut1 base in rounders; hassock

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1519

Etymology

The word for a base in rounders, or a seat or hassock, is of unknown origin.[1][2][3] The OED thinks that there is perhaps more than one word here.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of a number of objects set up as bases in rounders or a similar game, and in the plural a kind of stoolball: 1519, in a record printed in Raine's Priory of Hexham.[1][3]

Semantic evolution

In western dialects the word meant a small seat or hassock of straw, especially one for kneeling on, from 1553;[1][3][5] Wright records it in Worcestershire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, and a Devon churchwardens' account of 1751–2 pays a shilling for three tutts for the parson.[5] Butchers used it from 1856 for a cushion of meat.[1] In Devon tut was a kind of stoolball played at Easter, and in Yorkshire and elsewhere a stopping place or base in rounders.[5] The OED also records a rare use for the orb carried as an emblem of royal power, in glossaries of 1674 to 1706.[1]

Timeline

  • 1519 – a base in rounders or a similar game; stoolball.[1][3]
  • 1553 – a small seat or hassock of straw.[1][3]
  • 1674 – the royal orb (obsolete by 1706).[1]
  • 1856 – a butchers' term for a cushion of meat.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dialect) A base in rounders; also, a game like rounders or stoolball.[2][1][3]
  2. (dialect) A small seat or hassock of straw.[1][3][5]

tut2 exclamation of disapproval

Confidence
Established
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1529 before 1529, Skelton

Etymology

The exclamation is a natural utterance,[1][3][6][7] imitative in origin;[8][9] the spelling often stands for a click of the tongue against the teeth or the ridge behind them.[1][3][2] Barnhart suggests it may be a later variant of trut, recorded about 1330, and notes that it is sometimes linked with tush;[10][11] Skeat compared Middle French trut and tush,[12] and Johnson took tut to be the same as tush.[13] The verb is formed from the interjection by conversion.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

An exclamation of impatience with, or contemptuous dismissal of, something said or done: before 1529, in John Skelton.[1][11] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date it to the 1520s,[14][15] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 15th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

The exclamation was often doubled from the start.[1] Johnson (1755) called it a particle of contempt and quoted Shakespeare's "Tut, tut! grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle".[13] From 1676 tut was also a noun for the sound itself.[1] It has been a verb, to say tut, since 1832; a transitive use, to express disapproval of something or to say something disapprovingly, is recorded from 1972.[1][3] The doubled verb tut-tut is dated by Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1873.[2] In Scots the word appears as toot, toots or tuts.[16]

Timeline

  • before 1529 – exclamation of impatience or contempt.[1][11]
  • 1676 – noun, the utterance of this exclamation.[1]
  • 1832 – verb, to say tut.[1]
  • 1972 – transitive verb, to express disapproval of, to say disapprovingly.[1]

Meanings

Interjection

  1. Expressing annoyance, impatience or mild reproof: Tut, tut, you know better than that.[9][2][1]

Noun

  1. The sound of this exclamation, a click of the tongue.[1][17]

Verb

  1. To say tut to show disapproval.[1][16][17]
  2. To express disapproval of something, or to say something disapprovingly, with a tut.[1][3]

Word family

  • tut-tut
  • tutting

tut3 piece-work

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1778 W. Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis

Etymology

The word for piece-work is of unknown origin.[1][2][3][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Work paid by the piece or by measure, in the phrases upon tut and by the tut and in compounds such as tut-bargain and tut-man: 1778, in Pryce's Mineralogia Cornubiensis, of the Cornish tin mines.[1] The Shorter Oxford dates the word to the late 17th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

First a word of the Cornish tin mines, it was later used in Derbyshire lead mining as well;[1] it was used from 1800 of farm work in the south-western counties.[1][5] Wright records it in Derbyshire, the Isle of Wight, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, and Grose (1790) has the phrase to do work by the tut.[5] The Shorter Oxford also gives the sense "unproductive work".[3] Chambers records a verb, to do such work, and the compounds tutwork, tutworker and tutman.[16]

Timeline

  • 1778 – piece-work in the Cornish tin mines.[1]
  • 1800 – piece-work on farms in the south-western counties.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dialect) Piece-work, especially in mining, paid by measure or by weight.[2][1][16]

Word family

  • tutwork
  • tush

Usage notes

The interjection is properly pronounced as an alveolar click, made by placing the tip of the tongue on the ridge behind the upper teeth and drawing in air; the pronunciation /tʌt/ is a spelling pronunciation.[2][17][9] In English dialects Wright also records unrelated nouns spelled tut for offence (to take tut), a tooth, a ghost and a stupid person.[5]

References

  1. ^ 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 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g 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)
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  16. ^ a b c d e The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Tut.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tut. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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