different between scute vs scut

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skju?t/

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin scutum (“shield”). Compare scutum, escudo and scudo.

Noun

scute (plural scutes)

1. (zoology) A horny, chitinous, or bony external plate or scale, as on the shell of a turtle or the skin of crocodiles.
   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin 2006, p. 71:

     Then one afternoon, as he's stripping the scutes and hide from a shortnose sturgeon, an idea hits him.

2. (genetics) A proneural gene, often associated with achaete, that is required for the formation of many larval and adult sense organs
3. (obsolete) A small shield.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Skelton to this entry?)

4. (historical) An old French gold coin.

Synonyms

• scutum

Translations

Anagrams

• Cetus, cutes

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sk?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sk?t/, /sk?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English scut (“hare”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Middle English scut, scute (“short”), possibly from Old French escorter, escurter, or Latin excurt?re, scurt?re, from curt? (“to cut short, shorten”), from curtus (“short; shortened”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”)) + -?. A derivation from Old Norse skut, skutr (“stern of a boat”), or Icelandic skott (“animal's tail”) 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).

Noun

scut (plural scuts)

1. (obsolete) A hare; (hunting, also figuratively) a hare as the game in a hunt.
2. A short, erect tail, as of a hare, rabbit, or deer.

   • Shakespeare's use of the word scut may be a sly reference to Mistress Ford's pudenda: see sense 3.

3. (by extension) The buttocks or rump; also, the female pudenda, the vulva.

Translations

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain, possibly a variant of scout (“(obsolete except Scotland) contemptible person”), possibly related to scout (“to reject with contempt; to scoff”), from a North Germanic language; compare Old Norse skúta, skúte (“a taunt”), probably from Proto-Germanic *skeutan? (“to shoot”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- (“to shoot; to throw”). Compare Old Norse skútyrði, skotyrði (“abusive language”).

Noun

scut (plural scuts)

1. (chiefly Ireland, colloquial) A contemptible person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:git

Translations

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain; perhaps related to scut (“contemptible person”): see etymology 2.

Noun

scut (countable and uncountable, plural scuts)

1. (attributively) Distasteful work; drudgery

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drudgery
2. (medicine, slang) Some menial procedure left for a doctor or medical student to complete, sometimes for training purposes.

Derived terms

• scut monkey
• scut work, scutwork

Translations

Etymology 4

Origin unknown; perhaps from scut(tle), or related to Swedish scutla (“to leap”).

Verb

scut (third-person singular simple present scuts, present participle scutting, simple past and past participle scut)

1. (intransitive, originally Cumbria, East Anglia, Yorkshire) To scamper off.

See also

• whid

References

Anagrams

• Cust., TUSC, U. S. C. T., U.S.C.T., UCTs, USCT, USTC, cust, cuts

Romanian

Etymology

From Latin sc?tum (“shield”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skei- (“to cut, split”), an extension of *sek- (“to cut”).

Noun

scut n (plural scuturi)

1. shield

Related terms

• scuti