ABSTRACT - Various etymologies have been offered for the word "cut". The hypothetic attributions range from the Celtic, Latin to the Germanic.  However one can dispel these reconstructions by reexamining deeper the root of "cut" in Semitic languages. This essay attempts at proving that the present etymologies of the word "cut" are patently false. 

The following facts and theories summarizes the extend of this fallacy: 

FACTS: Cut ranks 114th on the Swadish list of 207 words in the English language. 

According to the OED, the origin of "cut" and its original sense is uncertain. 

The current cut, a word only of Modern English, being the proper word for incision, for which OE. used snithan, ceorfan, is known from, the 16th c. While cut, with the sense of "lot", goes back before 1300. 

There is no cognate word, and no derivative from any word meaning "CUTTING", used in the other Teutonic languages; in these, the word "LOT", with its cognates, is the native term. 

The word "cut" is not recorded in OE. (nor in any WGer., dialect), and there is no corresponding verb in Romanic. 

Mod. Norwegian kutte - to cut (chiefly used by sailors), according to the OED, is certainly adopted from English. 

HITHERTO RECONSTRUCTIONS: 

According to the Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, CUT: [OE. cutten, kitten, ketten; is prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. cwta to shorten, curtail. However, this conjectured derivation of cut from Welsh cwta "short"' is, in the opinion of Prof. Rhys, quite untenable. Neither cwta nor any of its derivatives have any relation whatever to the use of a knife or other cutting instrument; while the South Wales cwt =cut  cwt, gash, e.g. in the hand, is a mere adoption of English. 

Finally, "Online Etymology Dictionary" offers two posibilties: 1) Scandinavian origin, from N.Gmc. *kut-,  2) from O.Fr. couteau "knife". (First occurrence in O.French is in 1316 versus Middle English in c.1275.) 

REDISCOVERING THE ROOTS OF "CUT"

A proper investigation of the etymology of cut would take us back in time to Ugarit, an independent Canaanite kingdom from the 18th century BCE (present day Syria), which offers the following interesting clue found in Keilalphabetische Texte aus Ugarit 1.114. 

KTU 1.114 - is about a tale of Ilu, the chief Ugaritic god, known as the "father of mankind. Ilu is holding a party with all the Ugaritic pantheon gods, at which the moon disguises itself as a dog and runs about under the tables begging for scraps. Ugaritic is attested in texts from the 14th through the 12th century BC. 
 

REFERENCE: The Ugaritic Texts in Ugaritica 5. Review author[s]: A. F. Rainey. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 94, No. 2. (Apr. - Jun., 1974), pp. 184-194. 

It is  quite obvious that the Ugaritic word qtt (qopa+taana+tanna) in KTU1.114 is demonstrably three millennia earlier than the first occurrence of "cut" in Middle English (c.1275), Old French or Welsh. 

While the word "qtt" is not attested in the Northwest Semitic sister languages, such as Akkadian and Hebrew/Aramaic, it is the Classical Arabic that provides us with further irrefutable proof that the word is of a Semitic origin. 

Below are the various Arabic definitions of the word qtt  (qaf+ta'+ta'). 

QTT: 

1- in a general sense: separate with or as if with an instrument, i.e. he cut it, meaning a hard thing, cut it breadth wise across, or crosswise, he so separated it; he pared the reed for writing, cut off its head breadth wise across, or crosswise, the blacksmith pared, and made even, the hoof of the beast.

2- A slice cut off of anything, a portion, share or lot. Hence in the Qur'an 38. 
16,  they say: "Our Lord! Hasten to us our "lot" (Qittana) before the Day of Reckoning!" In Islamic chronology, this Suwrah belongs to the early middle Makkan period. c.615 CE. 

CONCLUSION: qtt (cut) is found in Ugaritic (Northwest Semitic) three millennia earlier than in any Indo-European suggested example. While Classical Arabic example with its derivative sense (lot) occurred some six to seven centuries prior to its first appearance in any Celtic or Germanic language. In addition of qtt, Arabic has qt` (qaf+ta'+`ayn) with the exact range of meanings. 
 

Ishinan 

9/28/2008