utter
pronunciation
How to pronounce utter in British English:
UK [ˈʌtə(r)]
How to pronounce utter in American English:
US [ˈʌtər]
-
- Verb:
- articulate; either verbally or with a cry, shout, or noise
- express audibly; utter sounds (not necessarily words)
- express in speech
- put into circulation
-
- Adjective:
- without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers
- total
Word Origin
- utter
- utter: English has two distinct words utter, but they come from the same ultimate source – out. The older, ‘complete, thorough-going’ [OE] originated as a comparative form of out (or ūt, as it was in the Old English period), and so morphologically is the same word as outer. It did not begin to be used as an intensive adjective until the 15th century. Utter ‘express openly, say’ [14] was borrowed from Middle Dutch ūteren ‘drive out, announce, speak’, a derivative of Old Low German ūt ‘out’.=> out
- utter (adj.)
- Old English utera, uterra, "outer, exterior, external," from Proto-Germanic *utizon (cognates: Old Norse utar, Old Frisian uttra, Middle Dutch utere, Dutch uiter-, Old High German uzar, German äußer "outer"), comparative adjective from ut (see out (adv.)). Meaning "complete, total" (i.e. "going to the utmost point") is from early 15c.
- utter (v.)
- "speak, say," c. 1400, in part from Middle Dutch uteren or Middle Low German utern "to turn out, show, speak," from uter "outer," comparative adjective from ut "out" (see utter (adj.)); in part from Middle English verb outen "to disclose," from Old English utan "to put out," from ut (see out (v.)). Compare German äussern "to utter, express," from aus "out;" and colloquial phrase out with it "speak up!" Formerly also used as a commercial verb (as release is now). Related: Uttered; uttering.
Example
- 1. Their growth spares the world utter economic stagnation .
- 2. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness .
- 3. Much advertising is utter waste .
- 4. Yet curiously , she doesn 't utter a peep during practice .
- 5. As a result of this utter failure to think , the united states today is both the world 's largest importer of illicit drugs and the world 's largest exporter of bad drug policy .