guttle

English
WOTD – 13 October 2022

Pronunciation
Hinko Smrekar, Požrešnost (Gluttony, 1927).[n 1]
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɡʌtl̩/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɡʌt(ə)l/, [-ɾ(ə)l]
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌtəl
  • Hyphenation: gut‧tle

Etymology 1

The verb is possibly derived from gut (“belly”) +‎ -le (frequentative suffix), perhaps influenced by guzzle (“to drink or eat quickly, voraciously, or to excess; to gulp down; to swallow greedily, continually, or with gusto”).[1][2]

The noun is derived from the verb.[3]

Verb

guttle (third-person singular simple present guttles, present participle guttling, simple past and past participle guttled) (archaic or British, dialectal)

  1. (transitive) Often followed by down or up: to swallow (something) greedily; to gobble, to guzzle.
    Synonyms: ingurgitate, scarf, scoff, wolf down; see also Thesaurus:eat
  2. (intransitive) To eat voraciously; to gorge.
    Synonym: gormandize
    • 1693, Aulus Persius Flaccus, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, pages 78–79:
      One, Frugal, on his Birth-Day fears to dine: / Does at a Penny's coſt in Herbs repine, / And hardly dares to dip his Fingers in the Brine. / Prepar'd as Prieſt of his ovvn Rites, to ſtand, / He ſprinkles Pepper vvith a ſparing hand. / His Jolly Brother, oppoſite in ſence, / Laughs at his Thrift; and laviſh of Expence, / Quaffs, Crams, and Guttles, in his ovvn defence.
    • a. 1765 (date written), C[harles] Churchill, “The Times”, in Poems […], volume II, [London]: [s.n.], published 1768, →OCLC, page 258:
      Time vvas, e'er Temperance had fled the realm; / E're Luxury ſat guttling at the helm / From meal to meal, vvithout one moment's ſpace […]
    • 1771, [Johann Georg Ritter von] Zimmermann, “Of the Vanity of Whole Nations”, in [Samuel Hull Wilcocke], transl., An Essay on National Pride, […], London: […] J. Wilkie, […], and C. Heydinger […], →OCLC, page 46:
      In a vvord, an Engliſhman, after guttling on pudding and beef, vvell diluted vvith ſtrong beer, talks avvay, of all other nations, as if they had not the ſame creator.
    • 1782, “A Key to the Modern System of Moral and Political Empiricism; or, A New Catechism à-la-Mode, for the Use of St. Stephen’s Chapel, and All Sober Families in the Beau Monde”, in The London Magazine: Or, Gentlemans Monthly Intelligencer: Appendix to the London Magazine for 1782, volume LI, London: […] R[oberts] Baldwin, […], →OCLC, page 621, column 2:
      Here idiotiſm is inveſted vvith place and honour, and a goat or a ſvvine guttles in a chair of ſtate.
    • 1783, [William O’Brien], “A Lecture on Eating and Drinking: Spoken in the Character of a Drunken Parson”, in The Lusorium; Being a Collection of Convivial Songs, Lectures, &ct. […], 2nd edition, [London?]: […] C. O’Brien, […]; sold by Mr. Lewis, […], Mr. Durham, […], Mr. Steel, […], Mrs. Peat, […], Mr. Tomlinson, […], →OCLC, page 23:
      I am perſuaded, my dearly beloved, that no man vvould guttle, or gormandize, on our modern ſtevvs, ſoups, ſpiced meats, and the like, if he had but a doctor's bill lying before him, and reflected on the enormous charge for an emetic; or if he conſidered that he vvho guttleth maketh his body a kind of barbecued hog, […]
    • 1837, [William] White, “Section III. The Evils of Quarantine Laws, and Non-existence of Pestilential Contagion.”, in The Evils of Quarantine Laws, and Non-existence of Pestilential Contagion; […], London: Effingham Wilson, […], →OCLC, page 79:
      The learned doctor declares that "soup" is an excellent substitute for "solid diet;" and that starvation with the poor is almost equivalent to gormandizing and guttling with "the more substantial classes of society."
    • 1841, Michael Angelo Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Papers by Mr. Yellowplush, Sometime Footman in Many Genteel Families. I. Miss Shum’s Husband. Chapter I.”, in Comic Tales and Sketches. […], volume I, London: Hugh Cunningham, […], →OCLC, page 2:
      [T]here we were, quarrelling and making up, sober and tipsy, starving and guttling by turns, just as ma got money or spent it.
    • 1890s, Poverty Knock; quoted in Ian Watson, “Song and Work”, in Song and Democratic Culture in Britain: An Approach to Popular Culture in Social Movements, London, Canberra, A.C.T.: Croom Helm; New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, 1983, →ISBN, page 106:
      Poverty, poverty knock, My loom is sayin' all day. / […] / I know I can guttle, when I hear my shuttle, go / Poverty, poverty knock.
      Quotation of a 19th-century song called “Poverty Knock”; the title refers to the repetitive sound of the loom.
Derived terms
Translations
to swallow (something) greedily — see gobble,‎ guzzle
to eat voraciously — see gorge,‎ gourmandise

Noun

guttle (plural guttles)

  1. (British, dialectal)
    1. An act of swallowing voraciously.
      • 1817 October 4, William Hone, “The Guttlers, and the New Lord Mayor”, in The Reformists’ Register, and Weekly Commentary, volume II, number 11, London: […] William Hone, […], →OCLC, column 324:
        The top of the great stained glass windows at each end of the hall, are cut off to accommodate a new flat plaster roof;—the old Gothic one, with its rich groining and carved work, could not be renewed but at the expense of at least two guttles!
      • 1884, Robert Louis Stevenson, W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, “Admiral Guinea”, in Sidney Colvin, editor, The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Edinburgh edition, volume XXIII (Drama), Edinburgh: […] T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable for Longmans Green and Co.;  […], published 1897, →OCLC, Act I, scene viii, page 199:
        You don't know what it is to want rum, you don't: it gets to that p'int that you would kill a 'ole ship's company for just one guttle of it.
    2. One who eats voraciously; a glutton.
      Synonyms: gorger, gourmandizer, guttler; see also Thesaurus:glutton
      • 1839, “A devoted friend, to non-intrusion” [pseudonym], “Dedication. To the Farmers in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.”, in A Letter to William Maxwell, Esq., Younger, of Cardoness, Addressed to Him as a Candidate for Parliament: […], Manchester: Thomas Smith, […], →OCLC, page xv:
        [P]lague tak the greedy guttles, I wish they wud gie ae meal, out o' the five, to their head.
      • [1866, Augustus Mayhew, “The Almanack of Successful Courtship; […]”, in Faces for Fortunes, new edition, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 330:
        Our doctor used to call me a ravenous eater; my mamma remarked I was blessed with an excellent appetite; cook said I was ‘a rare good one for vittals;’ and James, my own brother, whom I loved almost as much as stewed beef, invariably called me a ‘guttles.’ This unkind nickname pained me. It was vulgar, and more un-Christianly because it was so cuttingly true.]
  2. (obsolete, rare) Something which is eaten voraciously.
    • 1784–1789, Aulus Persius Flaccus, “Satire V”, in M[artin] Madan, transl., A New and Literal Translation of the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus, Dublin: […] John Exshaw, […], published 1795, →OCLC, page 141, lines 111–112:
      And can you paſs by money fixed in mud, / Nor ſvvallovv vvith your guttle mercurial ſpittle?
Translations
one who eats voraciously — see glutton

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Scots guttle,[4] from gut (“to eviscerate”)[5] + -le (frequentative suffix).[6]

Verb

guttle (third-person singular simple present guttles, present participle guttling, simple past and past participle guttled)

  1. (transitive, British, dialectal, Scotland) To remove the guts or entrails from (a person or an animal); to disembowel, to eviscerate, to gut.
Translations
to remove the guts or entrails from (a person or an animal) — see disembowel,‎ eviscerate,‎ gut

Etymology 3

Origin unknown; possibly imitative of water bubbling or gurgling.

Verb

guttle (third-person singular simple present guttles, present participle guttling, simple past and past participle guttled)

  1. (intransitive, Northern England) To make a bubbling sound; to gurgle.
Translations
to make a bubbling sound — see gurgle

Notes
  1. From the collection of the National Gallery of Slovenia in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

References
  1. “guttle, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2021.
  2. “guttle, v.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
  3. “† guttle, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2021.
  4. “guttle, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
  5. Compare “gut, n.1, v.1”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
  6. “-le, suff.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.

Further reading
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