scuttle

英文词源

scuttle

scuttle: English has three distinct words scuttle. The oldest, ‘large container’ [15] (now mainly encountered in coal-scuttle), was borrowed from Old Norse skutill, which goes back ultimately to Latin scutella ‘tray, salver’ (from which English also gets scullery and skillet). Scuttle ‘sink a ship’ [17] is a verbal use of an earlier noun scuttle ‘opening or hatch in a ship’s side’.

This was borrowed from early modern French escoutille ‘hatch’, which in turn came from Spanish escotilla, a diminutive form of escota ‘opening in a garment’. And escota was derived from escotar ‘cut out’, a compound verb formed with the prefix e- ‘out’ from the Germanic stem *skaut- (source of English sheet). Scuttle ‘run’ [17] is a variant of the now obsolete scuddle, which was derived from scud ‘move quickly’ [16]; and scud itself may have been an alteration of scut ‘rabbit’s tail’ [15] (a word of unknown origin), the underlying meaning therefore being ‘run like a rabbit’.
=> scullery, skillet; sheet; scud, scut

scuttle (n.)

"bucket," late Old English scutel "dish, platter," from Latin scutella "serving platter" (source also of French écuelle, Spanish escudilla, Italian scudella "a plate, bowl"), diminutive of scutra "flat tray, dish," perhaps related to scutum "shield" (see hide (n.1)).

A common Germanic borrowing from Latin (Old Norse skutill, Middle Dutch schotel, Old High German scuzzila, German Schüssel "a dish"). Meaning "basket for sifting grain" is attested from mid-14c.; sense of "bucket for holding coal" first recorded 1849.

scuttle (v.1)

"scamper, scurry," mid-15c., probably related to scud (v.). Related: Scuttled; scuttling.

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
[T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"]

scuttle (v.2)

"cut a hole in a ship to sink it," 1640s, from skottell (n.) "opening in a ship's deck" (late 15c.), from Middle French escoutille (Modern French écoutille) or directly from Spanish escotilla "hatchway," diminutive of escota "opening in a garment," from escotar "cut out," perhaps from e- "out" (see ex-) + Germanic *skaut-. Figurative use is recorded from 1888. Related: Scuttled; scuttling.