Etymology Dictionary

BUTT (1),  an end, thrust; to thrust.  (F.,—M. H. G.)   [The senses of the sb. may be referred back to the verb, just as the F. bout depends on bouter (Brachet).]   M. E. butten, to push, strike, Ormulum, l. 2810; Havelok, 1916.—O.F. boter, to push, butt, thrust, strike; of which the Norman form was buter, Vie de Saint Auban, 534.—M. H. G. bózen, to strike, beat; cognate with A. S. beátan.   See Beat.   B. Similarly, in the sense of butt-end, a reduplicated form, the E. butt is from O. F. bot (F. bout), an end.   Hall has 'but of their speres;' Hen. V, an. 10; also 'but-end of the spere;' Hen. VIII, an. 6.   C. In the sense of 'a butt to shoot at,' or 'a rising ground, a knoll,' we have borrowed the F. butte, which see in Cotgrave and Brachet.   Cf. F. but, a mark; buter, to strike; from the same root as before [※]

BUTT (2),  a large barrel.  (F.,—M. H. G.)   In Levins, 195. 13.  Not E.  [The A. S. byt or bytte, occurring in the pl. bytta in Matt. ix. 17, and the dat. sing. bytte, Psalm, xxii. 7, produced in M. E. bitte or bit, given under butte in Stratmann; cf. Icel. bytta, a pail, a small tub.  The A. S. butte is a myth.]   Our modern word is really French.—O. F. boute; F. botte, which Cotgrave explains as 'the vessel which we call a butt.'   β. Thus butt is merely a doublet of boot, a covering for the leg and foot, and the two words were once pronounced much more nearly alike than they are now.   See Boot (1).