different between scutwork vs scut

English

Alternative forms

• scut work

Etymology

scut +? work; see scut (“contemptible person”).

Noun

scutwork (uncountable)

1. Tasks that are tedious and monotonous or trivial and menial, usually inherent in the operations of a larger project.
   • 2000, Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, The New Why Teams Don't Work: What Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right

     Everyone on a team must pull their fair share of scutwork if the team is to succeed.

   • 2003, Julia Spencer-Fleming, In the Bleak Midwinter

     Hard to keep that edge of horror over the death of another human being when it was surrounded by so much tedious scutwork.

Translations

References

• 2003, William S. Haubrich, Medical Meanings: A Glossary of Word Origins, Page 216
• 1990, George Morley Story, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, page 448

Anagrams

• cutworks

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