In software development there is the phrase "cut a release," which means "to create a final package of software ready for distribution" and may include the distribution itself. I've used it for years without thought, but suddenly realized it's not an obvious phrase at all. So, where did the phrase come from?
The oldest usage I can find is 1989's "Project Athena's Release Engineering Tricks": "We currently have to handcraft a kernel and boot-blocks to fit, each time we cut a release."
Digging through the entire set of verb definitions for "cut" in the online Oxford English Dictionary, I can find near-hits, but no direct connections. There are no entries for the phrase "cut a release. My best findings were:
"To severe, divide (a connection, association, etc.)" – Perhaps in the sense of removing a version of the source code from it's development process.
"To record; to make (a record)." – This is audio specific, but maybe it drifted? Example usage included "cut a disk"
"To sever oneself, free oneself, escape." – This is in the context of "cut loose," and I can see the idea of software "escaping."
"…perform, or accomplish (something). Chiefly in to cut it: to succeed, to deal with something effectively; to meet an expected or required standard in the performance of a task, to measure up." – This is a draft addition. Releasing software is often a task to be dealt with or to succeed at.
Best Answer
As suggested in a couple of comments the expression probably derives from the older reference to to vinyl records, that is from the expression "cut a record". The expression was later used for CDs with the meaning of recording a CD.
Cut a record:
From (Yahoo answers)