Learn English – Meaning and origin of British/Australian slang word ‘tut’

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About twenty years ago I overheard a girl from the north of England laughingly advise a friend to get ready for a night out by telling her to 'slap some tut on your face'. She clearly meant 'put on some make-up'.
I had already heard an Australian informally use the same, or a similar-sounding word, 'tut', to mean 'toilet'.

I have also seen it defined on a website of British slang as: 'tut Noun. Rubbish, nonsense. E.g."Whatever he told you about me is just a load of tut." or "I think we need to clear up all this tut before your parents arrive."

Are the three meanings of make-up, toilet and rubbish linked by some excremental ur-word, and if so does anyone know the origin?

Best Answer

The origin of the word 'tut' as a noun is, as of yet, unknown. The OED entry for Tut says:

Etymology: There is perhaps more than one word here. Of the origin nothing has been ascertained.

However, the use of the word 'tut' in the 'rubbish' sense may be supported by this definition from the OED:

a. Orig. in the Cornish tin-mines, now also in Derbyshire lead-mining: in the phrase upon tut (also by the tut), and attrib. as tut-bargain, tut-man, tut-work (also as vb.), tut-worker, tut-working, tut-workman: denoting a system of payment by measurement or by the piece, adopted in paying for work which brings no immediate returns, as distinct from tribute n. 3; hence, work of this character; dead-work.

The OED takes less of a cop-out on Tut, v. saying:

Etymology: A natural utterance; the spelling tut sometimes represents the palatal click (also spelt tchick n., tck int.).

Which may also explain the etymology of the slang word - being something that is just replaced for a word that is better left unsaid - a sort of self-censorship of more appropriate or cruder language.

Ultimately my guess would be that it's some combination of the two.

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