putter

English

WOTD – 10 December 2017

Etymology 1

American professional golfer Eric Axley with a putter (etymology 3, sense 1)

Alteration of potter.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: pŭt'ə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈpʌtə(ɹ)/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpʌtɚ/, /-ɾɚ/
Audio (AU) (file)
Rhymes: -ʌtə(ɹ)
Hyphenation: put‧ter

Verb

putter (third-person singular simple present putters, present participle puttering, simple past and past participle puttered)

(intransitive) To be active, but not excessively busy, at a task or a series of tasks.
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, OCLC 1004950748, OL 5535161W, pages 304–305:
  We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time. 'Twas locked, of course, but the Deacon man got a big bunch of keys out of his pocket and commenced to putter with the lock.

Translations

to be active

Russian: возиться (ru) (vozitʹsja), копошиться (ru) (kopošitʹsja)

Etymology 2

put +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: po͝ot'ə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈpʊtə(ɹ)/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpʊtɚ/, /-ɾɚ/
Audio (UK) (file)
Rhymes: -ʊtə(ɹ)
Hyphenation: putt‧er

Noun

putter (plural putters)

One who puts or places.
Coordinate term: puttee
- 1995, Leonard Shengold, Delusions of Everyday Life (page 39)
  He was a model of anal defensiveness: fastidious in his dress and appearance, a collector and putter of things in order, a classifier and labeler.
- 2012, Anetta Kopecka, ‎Bhuvana Narasimhan, Events of Putting and Taking: A Crosslinguistic Perspective (page 55)
  […] for example, Gleitman (1990:30), in support of her claim for universal alignments of syntax and semantics, argues for the universal naturalness of three arguments for 'put' verbs (a putter, a puttee, and a location).
A shot-putter.
(mining) One who pushes the small wagons in a coal mine.

Derived terms

(one who puts or places): shot-putter

Etymology 3

putt +‎ -er

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: pŭt'ə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈpʌtə(ɹ)/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpʌtɚ/, /-ɾɚ/
Rhymes: -ʌtə(ɹ)
Hyphenation: putt‧er

Noun

putter (plural putters)

(golf) A golf club specifically intended for a putt.
(golf) A person who is taking a putt or putting.

Translations

type of golf club

Dutch: putter (nl) m
Finnish: putteri (fi)
German: Putter (de) m
Icelandic: pútter m
Maori: haupatu tīpao

Etymology 4

Onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: pŭt'ə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈpʌtə(ɹ)/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpʌtɚ/, /-ɾɚ/
Rhymes: -ʌtə(ɹ)
Hyphenation: put‧ter

Verb

putter (third-person singular simple present putters, present participle puttering, simple past and past participle puttered)

(intransitive) To produce intermittent bursts of sound in the course of operating.
- 2010, Pat Kelleher, “‘Some Corner of a Foreign Field …’”, in Black Hand Gang (No Man’s World), Osney Mead, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Abaddon Books, →ISBN:
  By the time the engine had puttered and died Atkins and some of the others were out of the trenches and walking towards this new wonder machine.
- 2010 June 14, Dan Newton, The Wildcat, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN:
  Timmy's dad drove an old blue truck that puttered and sputtered to get to the top of the mountain, that led to the valley, where … the WILDCAT waited.
- 2017 March, Jennifer S. Holland, “For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival”, in National Geographic‎, archived from the original on 3 May 2017:
  As I reluctantly left Tangkoko for the last time, bumping along the trail on a motorbike, Raoul, the alpha male who had smacked my leg, wandered out from among the trees. He was alone, and after I puttered by, I glanced back to see him swagger into the middle of the path to watch me go.

Translations

to produce intermittent bursts of sound in the course of operating

Russian: тарахтеть (ru) (taraxtetʹ)

Anagrams

Pruett

Dutch

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈpʏ.tər/
Audio (file)
Hyphenation: put‧ter
Rhymes: -ʏtər

Etymology 1

From putten (“to draw water”) +‎ -er.

Noun

putter m (plural putters, diminutive puttertje n)

A European goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis.
Synonym: distelvink

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English putter. Equivalent to putten +‎ -er.

Noun

putter m (plural putters)

(golf) A putter, a golf club used to putt.

French

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English putter.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pœ.tœʁ/

Noun

putter m (plural putters)

putter (golf club)

Etymology 2

English putt +‎ -er

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pœ.te/

Verb

putter

(golf) to putt

Conjugation

Conjugation of putter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	putter
present participle or gerund¹	simple	puttant /pœ.tɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		putté /pœ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	putte /pœt/	puttes /pœt/	putte /pœt/	puttons /pœ.tɔ̃/	puttez /pœ.te/	puttent /pœt/
	imperfect	puttais /pœ.tɛ/	puttais /pœ.tɛ/	puttait /pœ.tɛ/	puttions /pœ.tjɔ̃/	puttiez /pœ.tje/	puttaient /pœ.tɛ/
	past historic²	puttai /pœ.te/	puttas /pœ.ta/	putta /pœ.ta/	puttâmes /pœ.tam/	puttâtes /pœ.tat/	puttèrent /pœ.tɛʁ/
	future	putterai /pœ.tʁe/	putteras /pœ.tʁa/	puttera /pœ.tʁa/	putterons /pœ.tʁɔ̃/	putterez /pœ.tʁe/	putteront /pœ.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	putterais /pœ.tʁɛ/	putterais /pœ.tʁɛ/	putterait /pœ.tʁɛ/	putterions /pœ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	putteriez /pœ.tə.ʁje/	putteraient /pœ.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior²	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	putte /pœt/	puttes /pœt/	putte /pœt/	puttions /pœ.tjɔ̃/	puttiez /pœ.tje/	puttent /pœt/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	puttasse /pœ.tas/	puttasses /pœ.tas/	puttât /pœ.ta/	puttassions /pœ.ta.sjɔ̃/	puttassiez /pœ.ta.sje/	puttassent /pœ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	putte /pœt/	—	puttons /pœ.tɔ̃/	puttez /pœ.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
¹ The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
² In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

putter

present of putte

Vilamovian

Pronunciation

Audio (file)

Noun

putter f

butter

putter

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Verb

Translations

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Noun

Derived terms

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Noun

Translations

Etymology 4

Pronunciation

Verb

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Noun

Etymology 2

Noun

French

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Noun

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Verb

Conjugation

Further reading

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

Vilamovian

Pronunciation

Noun