butt

Meanings

Noun

  • The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end
  • The waste end of anything
  • An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
  • A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
  • A push, thrust, or sudden blow, given by the head; a head butt.
  • A thrust in fencing.
  • An English measure of capacity for liquids, containing 126 wine gallons which is one-half tun; equivalent to the pipe.
  • A wooden cask for storing wine, usually containing 126 gallons.
  • Any of various flatfish such as sole, plaice or turbot
  • A heavy two-wheeled cart.
  • A three-wheeled cart resembling a wheelbarrow.

Verb

  • To join at the butt, end, or outward extremity; to terminate; to be bounded; to abut.
  • To strike bluntly, particularly with the head.
  • To strike bluntly with the head.

Origin

  • From Middle English but, butte, from Old English byt, bytt and *butt (attested in diminutive Old English buttuc > English buttock), from Proto-Germanic *buttaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰnós, later thematic variant of Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ-.
  • Cognate with Norwegian butt, Icelandic bútur, Low German butt. Influenced by Old French but, butte, ultimately from the same Germanic source. Compare also Albanian bythë, Ancient Greek πυθμήν, Latin fundus and Sanskrit बुध्न, from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Related to bottom, boot.
  • From Middle English butten, from Anglo-Norman buter, boter, from Frankish *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd-. Cognate with Old English bēatan. More at beat.
  • From Middle English bit, bitte, bytte, butte, from Old English bytt, byt and Old French boute and other etymologies on this page.
  • From Middle English but, butte, botte, possibly derived from butt#Etymology 1, meaning "blunt-headed fish." Compare Dutch bot and the second element of English halibut.
  • Cognate with West Frisian bot, German Low German Butt, German Butt, Butte, Swedish butta.

Modern English dictionary

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