scut

Meanings

Noun

• A hare; a hare as the game in a hunt.
• A short, erect tail, as of a hare, rabbit, or deer.
• The buttocks or rump; also, the female pudenda, the vulva.
• A contemptible person.
• Distasteful work; drudgery
• Some menial procedure left for a doctor or medical student to complete, sometimes for training purposes.

Verb

• To scamper off.

Origin

• From Middle English scut; further Unknown, possibly related to Middle English scut, scute, possibly from Old French escorter, escurter, or Latin excurtāre, scurtāre, from curtō, from curtus (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-) + -ō. A derivation from Old Norse skut, skutr, or Icelandic skott is thought to be unlikely.
• As to sense 3 (“the female pudenda, the vulva”), see the letter of 5 June 1875 from Joseph Crosby to Joseph Parker Norris published in One Touch of Shakespeare (1986).
• Unknown, possibly a variant of scout, possibly related to scout, from a North Germanic language; compare Old Norse skúta, skúte, probably from Proto-Germanic *skeutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd-. Compare Old Norse skútyrði, skotyrði.
• Unknown; perhaps related to scut (“contemptible person”): see etymology 2.
• Unknown; perhaps from scuttle, or related to Swedish scutla.