See also: Cutterman

English edit

Etymology 1 edit

There may be some tie to the Slate Belt region, USA, where Cornish and Welsh quarrymen of the last two centuries were likely referred to as cutters.

Noun edit

cutterman (plural cuttermen)

  1. (colloquial, US, Pennsylvania) A person who is either unkempt or slovenly.
Usage notes edit

It is almost exclusive to Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Variations of the word are cudderman or cunnerman. School children and young adults in the area frequently shorten it to cutty to describe something or someone less desirable.

Etymology 2 edit

cutter +‎ -man

Noun edit

cutterman (plural cuttermen)

  1. One who is employed to operate an industrial cutting tool.
    • 1883, The Paper Mills Directory of England, Sotland, & Ireland, and Year book fo the Paper-Making Trade For 1883:
      When the clamp is brought down to show where the knife will cut, the cutterman has merely to press the treadle slightly, and if satisfied that the knife will fall exactly where it is wanted, he can start the Machine without releasing the clamp.
    • 1936, The Industrial arbitration reports, New South Wales:
      While the paper is running through the machine the cutterman must carefully watch for creases, which indicate that the roll is running too loose and necessitate the application of resin, and for drags in the paper and breaks in the roll.
    • 1955, Reports of H.M. Inspectors of Mines Under the Coal Mines Act, page 14:
      The cutting chain guard was not being used and the cutterman had not ensured that his assistant was clear.
    • 2013, E. L. Trist, G. W. Higgin, H. Murray, Organizational Choice (RLE: Organizations), →ISBN:
      According to the fillers and pullers much of this was due to the bad technique of the senior cutterman who had not been employed on cutting for many years.
  2. A member of the U.S. Coast Guard with 7 years or more of sea duty.
    • 2002, United States Naval Institute, Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute - Volume 128, page 51:
      The result is that from the summer of 1999 to the summer of 2000 five out of the seven rear admirals who served as operational district commanders and all four vice admirals wore no cutterman or aviator insignia.
    • 2006, Dana Stabenow, Blindfold Game, →ISBN:
      She would have her cutterman's pin before the year was out, denoting seven years' sea duty, which included two years' command of a one-ten white hull out of Eureka, California.
    • 2011 January, “Cuttermen: In Memoriam”, in MotorBoating, volume 204, number 1, page 13:
      Visitors to the site will see that alongside the names, a poem titled Hurrah for the Sea and a cutterman insignia have also been engraved onto the plaques.

References edit

  • cutterman, Dictionary of American Regional English.