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:
However, the use of the word 'tut' in the 'rubbish' sense may be supported by this definition from the OED:
The OED takes less of a cop-out on Tut, v. saying:
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.