Butt

See also: butt, but, bút, bût, būt, and but-

English

Alternative forms

• Butte

Etymology

• As an English surname, from Middle English butte (“target, goal”), from French but (“target, aim”).
• Also as an English surname, from butte (“isolated hill”).
• Also as an English surname, from butt (sense 3) (“cask, bottle”).
• Also as an English surname, from a nickname related to butt (sense 1) (“thick end”).
• As an English and German surname, from butt (sense 4) (“type of flounder”).
• As a Kashmiri surname, spelling variant of Bhatt.

Proper noun

Butt (plural Butts)

1. A surname.
   1. A surname from English.
   2. A surname from German.
   3. A surname from Kashmiri.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Butt”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 1, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 262.

German

Etymology

Borrowed from German Low German Butt, from Middle Low German but, butte, from Old Saxon *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“stumpy”). Cognate with Dutch bot and with English butt, in all senses.

Apparently this word had the primitive meaning of being a stump, i. e. being flattened by reason of beating, whereby the root might be identified with the one of English beat and German bossen, bosseln.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʊt/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Butt m (strong, genitive Buttes or Butts, plural Butte)

1. (Northern Germany) European flounder (Platichthys flesus)
2. lefteye flounder (fish of the family Bothidae)
3. turbot (fish of the family Scophthalmidae)

Declension

Declension of Butt [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Butt	die	Butte
genitive	eines	des	Buttes, Butts	der	Butte
dative	einem	dem	Butt, Butte1	den	Butten
accusative	einen	den	Butt	die	Butte

¹Now rare, see notes.

Derived terms

• Heilbutt
• Steinbutt

Further reading

• “Butt” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Butt” in Duden online