Etymograph

English

buttock

Buttock comes from Middle English buttok.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500buttok
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1615–1620buttock

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500buttok
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1615–1620buttock

Earliest quotation: c. 1615–1620, Thomas Middleton, The Mayor of Quinborough: A Comedy. […] [Hengist: “Run, run, come you hither / Novv, take all…”

Formed from butt + -ock

Old English byt ‘small piece of land’

Middle English but ‘goal, mark, butt of land’

English butt

The story

Inherited from Middle English buttok, probably from Old English buttuc (“end; end piece”; also, “short piece of land”). Attested with its current anatomical meaning since 1300. A diminutive form of what is presumably the Old English precursor of butt + -ock (diminutive suffix).

Every English word from Middle English buttok

Today it means

noun Each of the two large fleshy halves of the posterior part of the body between the base of the back, the perineum, and the top of the legs.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Middle English buttok / buttock

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