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Tuesday 25 February 2014

Thing To Do Today: utter.

The only difficulty here will be deciding what to utter.

A growl? An oath (by Jove!)? A snarl?

If you have nothing to snarl, swear, or growl at, then any public announcement is technically an utterance: so that must include anything on Facebook,or Twitter.

Or, I suppose, on a blog post.

For lawyers (English criminal lawyers, anyway (who aren't necessarily criminal: it's just that they deal with criminal law)) uttering involves the distribution of fake coins or banknotes. The utter in utter barrister, though, means a junior lawyer.

If you're utterly miserable that's another sort of utter entirely.

Unless you're a lawyer who's really really desperate to get promotion.

English lawyer, early 20th century. by liftarn - English lawyer, early 20th century.

Thing To Do Today: utter. The speaking word comes from the Middle Dutch ūteren, to make known, and is related to the Middle Low German ūtern to sell or show. Utter meaning total comes from the Old English utera, which means outer.
 

2 comments:

  1. I came across 'utter roome' last week while looking for examples for a word.
    I sat for way too long trying to work out what it meant!
    A light bulb finally went on up top, and I checked out the etymology for utter.
    What a lovely moment that was! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A new turning in the Great Maze found, and so we can see a little further.
      I suppose in the days of your utter roome all written language was secret in a way, because almost everybody couldn't read it. Interesting.

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