butcher

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person who cuts and sells meat.

   The butcher recommended a nice cut of beef for the roast.

2. 2
   verb

   To kill an animal and prepare it for food.

   They butchered the pig for the winter.

3. 3
   noun

   A cruel person who kills many people violently.

   The dictator was remembered as a butcher of his own people.

4. 4
   verb

   To ruin or spoil something by doing it very badly.

   The singer completely butchered the national anthem.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Butcher goes back to French boc, “male goat,” which is probably related to buck, “male deer.” It originally referred more to a slaughterman than a seller and very quickly also came to denote a brutal murderer or someone responsible for slaughtering many people.

From Middle English bocher, boucher, from Old French bouchier (“goat slaughterer”), from Old French bouc (“goat”), from Medieval Latin buccus (“he-goat”), from Frankish *bukk, from Proto-Germanic *bukkaz (“male goat, male deer”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ- (“buck, ram”). See also English buck.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary