putt
[pʰat]
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.15 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The act of tapping a golf ball lightly on a putting green.
noun
A regular sound characterized by the sound of "putt putt putt putt...", such as made by some slowly stroking internal combustion engines.
verb
To move along slowly.
Example Sentences
- "There were the golfers. Was it possible that they were going on with their game? Yes, there was a fellow driving off from a tee, and that other group upon the green were surely putting for the hole."
- "We have a custome, that when one sneezes, every one els putts off his hatt, and bowes, and cries God bless ye Sir."
Etymology
Borrowed from Scots putt (“to put”). Compare Middle Dutch putten (“to dig a pit”). The Old English putian (“to push; thrust; put; place”) derivation is commonly assumed, although no longer valid. In Dutch, the word is instanced in a description of golf in an early seventeenth-century edition of Pieter van Afferden's Tyrocinium linguae latinae. All derive from Proto-Germanic *putōną.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: putt, *putōną
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: [pʰat]
- British English: [pʰɐt]