FromMiddle Englishscut(“hare”);[1] further etymology uncertain, possibly related toMiddle Englishscut,scute(“short”), possibly fromOld Frenchescorter,escurter, orLatinexcurtāre,scurtāre,[2][3][4] fromcurtō(“to cut short, shorten”), fromcurtus(“short; shortened”) (fromProto-Indo-European*(s)ker-(“to cut off”)) +-ō. A derivation fromOld Norseskut,skutr(“stern of a boat”), orIcelandicskott(“animal's tail”) is thought to be unlikely.[3]
As to sense 3 (“thefemalepudenda, thevulva”), see the letter of 5 June 1875 from Joseph Crosby to Joseph Parker Norris published inOne Touch of Shakespeare (1986).[5]
scut (pluralscuts)
- (obsolete) Ahare;(hunting, also figuratively) a hare as thegame in ahunt.
- Ashort,erecttail, as of ahare,rabbit, ordeer.
c.1597 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act V, scene v],page51, column 1:M[istress]Ford. SirIohn: Art thou there (my Deere?) /Fal[staff.] My Doe, with the blackeScut?
- Shakespeare's use of the wordscut may be a sly reference to Mistress Ford's pudenda: see sense 3.[5]
- (by extension) Thebuttocks orrump; also, thefemalepudenda, thevulva.
1750, “Ge ho, Dobbin or the Waggoner”, inThe Tulip,page 2:I rumpled her Feathers, and tickled herScut, / And play'd the round Rubbers at two handed Put.
1938, Norman Lindsay, chapter XVII, inAge of Consent, London:T[homas] Werner Laurie […],→OCLC,page177:Put on your dress, ye shameless witch, standin' there in your pelt I'll take a strap to, for havin' the conceit out of you, for by your idling had lost me the sup of gin to keep the breath of life in me. Cover yourscut, or I'll welt the skin off it.
a.1968,Keith Roberts, “The Lady Margaret”, inGardner Dozois, editor,Modern Classics of Science Fiction, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin,St. Martin’s Press, published1993,→ISBN,page233:So … so she show you her pretty li'lscut, he? Jesse, you are a lad; when will you learn?
1997,Charles Frazier, “To Live Like a Gamecock”, inCold Mountain: A Novel, New York, N.Y.:Grove Press,→ISBN,page216:One of the sisters backed up to the fire and hiked up the tail of her dress and bent over and thrust out herscut to it and stared at Inman with a look of glazed pleasure in her blue eyes.
Translations to be checked
(animal's hind end):
Uncertain, possibly a variant ofscout(“(obsolete except Scotland) contemptible person”), possibly related toscout(“to reject with contempt; to scoff”), from aNorth Germanic language; compareOld Norseskúta,skúte(“a taunt”), probably fromProto-Germanic*skeutaną(“to shoot”),[6][7] fromProto-Indo-European*(s)kewd-(“to shoot; to throw”). CompareOld Norseskútyrði,skotyrði(“abusive language”).[6]
scut (pluralscuts)
- (chiefly Ireland, colloquial) Acontemptibleperson.
- Synonyms:seeThesaurus:git
1938, Norman Lindsay,Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.:Ure Smith, published1962,→OCLC, page195:"I'll have no more of it. I'll have no more Dinny Ryans handlin' flesh and blood of my gettin'. Ye'd see me dyin' for a sup of drink to give me peace, and you philanderin' and danderin' with yonscut of a fellow, and worse doin's behind that, if the truth is told."
1947,Paul Vincent Carroll,The Wise Have Not Spoken: A Drama in Three Acts (French’s Acting Edition;no. 308), London: French,→OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.:Dramatists Play Service,1954,→OCLC, Act III, scene i,page49:She didn't need a new dress! Me money! Me hard earned three hundred that I scraped and scrimped for. Mescut of a daughter puttin' it on her back in finery.
1985, “Delerium Tremens” (track 2), inOrdinary Man[1], performed byChristy Moore:I dreamt that Ruairi Quinn was smokin' marijuana in the Dail. Barry Desmond handing Frenchies out toscuts in Fianna Fail.
1997,John Kessel, “The Pure Product”, inThe Pure Product: Stories (Tom Doherty Associates Book), New York, N.Y.:Tor Books,→ISBN; republished inHarry Turtledove, withMartin H[arry] Greenberg, editors,The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century, New York, N.Y.:Del Rey Books,Ballantine Books,2005,→ISBN,page322:Ruth had snapped open her purse and pulled out a small gun. I grabbed her arm and yanked her into the car; she squawked and her shot went wide. [...] "Youscut," she said as we hit the entrance ramp of the interstate. "You're a scut-pumping Conservative. You made me miss."
2005, Dean Whitlock, chapter 12, inSky Carver, New York, N.Y.: Clarion Books,Houghton Mifflin Company,→ISBN,page108:Fat-headedscut. That's what he is,scut. Thinks he runs the whole river.
Uncertain; perhaps related toscut (“contemptible person”):[8]seeetymology 2.
scut (countable anduncountable,pluralscuts)
- (attributively)Distastefulwork;drudgery
- Synonyms:seeThesaurus:drudgery
1998,Jonathan Kellerman, chapter17, inBilly Straight: A Novel, New York, N.Y.:Random House,→ISBN, page112; republished London:Headline Publishing Group,2009,→ISBN:Let's devote mornings to thescut, do real work in the afternoon.
1999, Catherine Miles Wallace,Dance Lessons: Moving to the Rhythm of a Crazy God, Harrisburg, Pa.: Morehouse Publishing,→ISBN, page163:And thescut of weeding or washing clothes or waiting in the dentist's waiting room or the soccer field parking lot is actually far less brutalizing than thescut of grading freshman essays [...]
2003, Virginia Gayl Salazar,Gone: A Sci Fi about Cloning, New York, N.Y., Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press,iUniverse,→ISBN,page144:"What if you were called ascut puppy?" / "When I first started I was one. Ascut puppy is usually a medical student or a nurse who does menial tasks. That's how a person learns in the beginning. We are under others who will teach us and work our tails off."
2004, Clark Howard, “The Leper Colony”, inEd Gorman,Martin H[arry] Greenberg, editors,The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: Fifth Annual Collection (Tom Doherty Associates Book), New York, N.Y.:Tor Books,→ISBN, page445:So they give the people assigned to the Probation Squad everyscut case that other squads don't want to handle.
- (medicine, slang) Somemenialprocedure left for adoctor ormedicalstudent tocomplete, sometimes fortraining purposes.
1999, Patricia L. Dawson,Forged by the Knife: The Experience of Surgical Residency from the Perspective of a Woman of Color, Seattle, Wash.: Open Hand Pub.,→ISBN, page100:There's no question that it's sexist. [Female residents] are berated more on rounds, given morescut to do.
Origin unknown; perhaps fromscut(tle), or related toSwedishscutla(“to leap”).[9]
scut (third-person singular simple presentscuts,present participlescutting,simple past and past participlescut)
- (intransitive, originally Cumbria, East Anglia, Yorkshire) Toscamper off.
- ^“scut,n.(1)”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007, retrieved13 April 2019.
- ^“scū̆t(e,adj.”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007, retrieved13 April 2019.
- ↑3.03.1“scut,n.1”, inOED Online
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1911; compare“scut,adj. andn.3”, inOED Online, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1911. - ^“scut1,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
- ↑5.05.1Joseph Crosby (1875 June 5) “Letter 55[to Joseph Parker Norris]”, in John W. Velz and Frances N. Teague, editors,One Touch of Shakespeare: Letters of Joseph Crosby to Joseph Parker Norris, 1875–1878, Washington, D.C.: Folger Books,Folger Shakespeare Library; Cranbury, N.J.; London; Mississauga, Ont.:Associated University Presses, published1986,→ISBN,page79: “[C]an there be a doubt thatoverscutched [inHenry IV, Part 2, Act III, scene ii] means one who hathscutched too much, or used herscut to excess, and that "the overscutched huswives" meantold, played out whores? I think not.”
- ↑6.06.1“scut,n.4”, inOED Online, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1982;“scout,n.2”, inOED Online, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1911;“scout,v.2”, inOED Online, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1911.
- ^“scut2,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
- ^“scut,n.5”, inOED Online, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1982;“scutwork,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
- ^Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “SCUT,v.2 andsb.3”, inThe English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumeV (R–S), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to theEnglish Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.:G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons,→OCLC,page302, column 1: “To make short, hurried runs; to scamper away; to run without being seen.”
Inherited fromLatinscūtum(“shield”), ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*skei-(“to cut, split”), an extension of*sek-(“to cut”).Doublet ofescudo.
scut n (pluralscuturi)
- shield
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1911; compare“scut,adj. andn.3”, inOED Online