hut meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

hut

noun

CA, US, UK /hʌt/ · AU, NZ /hɐt/

Etymology From Middle English *hutte, hotte, from both Old English hōd and Old English hȳdan (“to hide”) and influenced by Anglo-Norman hute or hutte, from Middle French hutte, from Old French hute (“hut”), hute (“cottage”), from Old High German hutta (“hut, cottage”), from Proto-Germanic *hudjǭ, *hudjō (“hut”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewt- (“to deck; cover; covering; skin”). Cognate with German Hütte (“hut”), Dutch hut (“hut”), West Frisian hutte (“hut”), Saterland Frisian Hutte (“hut”), Danish hytte (“hut”), Norwegian Bokmål hytte (“hut”), Swedish hydda (“hut”). Related to hide.

1

A small, simple one-storey dwelling or shelter, often with just one room, and generally built of readily available local materials.

a thatched hut; a mud hut; a shepherd’s hut
And in his Hut, when hee to rest doth take him, Hee sleeps, till Drums or deadlie Pellets wake him.1625, Nicholas Breton, “An Untrained Souldiour”, in Characters and Essayes, Aberdeen: Edward Raban, page 31:

3 more examples

1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 186, 28 December, 1751, Volume 6, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, pp. 108-109, […] love, that extends his dominion wherever humanity can be found, perhaps exerts the same power in the Greenlander’s hut, as in the palaces of eastern monarchs.
[…] I was a hired-out shepherd in a solitary hut, not seeing no faces but faces of sheep till I half forgot wot men’s and women’s faces wos like,1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XX, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 341:
There was an oil lamp in all the four huts on Okonkwo’s compound, and each hut seen from the others looked like a soft eye of yellow half-light set in the solid massiveness of night.1958 June 17, Chinua Achebe, chapter 11, in Things Fall Apart, New York, N.Y.: Astor-Honor, published 1959, →OCLC, part 1, page 99:

2

A small wooden shed.

a groundsman’s hut

3

Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle Obsolete A small stack of grain.

Derived terms: bathing hut, beach hut, booby hut, hut circle, hutkeeper, hutless, hutlet, hutlike, hutmaster, hutment, hut tax, hutting, Iris hut, nipa hut, Nissen hut, observation hut, outhut, palaver hut, Quonset hut, Romney hut, slab hut
Related terms: cabin, cottage, shack, shanty

hut

verb

Etymology From Middle English *hutte, hotte, from both Old English hōd and Old English hȳdan (“to hide”) and influenced by Anglo-Norman hute or hutte, from Middle French hutte, from Old French hute (“hut”), hute (“cottage”), from Old High German hutta (“hut, cottage”), from Proto-Germanic *hudjǭ, *hudjō (“hut”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewt- (“to deck; cover; covering; skin”). Cognate with German Hütte (“hut”), Dutch hut (“hut”), West Frisian hutte (“hut”), Saterland Frisian Hutte (“hut”), Danish hytte (“hut”), Norwegian Bokmål hytte (“hut”), Swedish hydda (“hut”). Related to hide.

1

Archaic To provide (someone) with shelter in a hut.

to hut troops in winter quarters
[…] commonly the Captaines, after their souldiers are hutted, build Hutts in the place, where their tents stood,1631, Samuel Marolois, translated by Henry Hexham, The Art of Fortification, Amsterdam: John Johnson, Part 2, Figure 124 & 125:

2 more examples

[…] the scite of the New Town, where divisions of the 17th and 20th light dragoons had hutted themselves.1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 6, p. 200:
His troops, hutted among the heights of Morristown, were half fed, half clothed, and inferior in number to the garrison of New York.1850, Washington Irving, chapter 56, in The Life of Washington, volume 2, New York: John W. Lovell, page 443:

2

Archaic To take shelter in a hut.

1653, Newsletter sent from London to Edward Nicholas dated 17 June, 1653, in William Dunn Macray (ed.), Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1869, Volume 2, p. 219, Seven boatfuls of Dutch prisoners have been taken to Chelsea College, where they are to hut under the walls.
He removed with the troops, on the 19th, to Valley-forge, where they hutted, about sixteen miles from Philadelphia.1778, William Gordon, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America, London, Volume 3, Letter 1, p. 11:

3

Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle Obsolete To stack (sheaves of grain).

The method of endeavouring to save corn in bad harvests, by hutting it in the field, is often practised in the north and west of Scotland,1796, James Donaldson, Modern Agriculture; or, The Present State of Husbandry in Great Britain, volume 2, Edinburgh, page 417:

hut

intj

Etymology A short, sharp sound of command. Compare hey, hup, etc.

1

American football, Ball games, Football, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Called by the quarterback to prepare the team for a play.

Related terms: ten-hut