Gutter

How to spell gutter

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gutter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gutter mean?

1. nounA channel along the edge of a roof or roadside that collects and carries away rainwater.
2. verbOf a flame or candle, to burn unsteadily and threaten to go out as melted wax or fuel runs down.

Gutter in a sentence

• noun

  The heavy rain overflowed the gutter and soaked the front wall.

• verb

  The candle began to gutter in the draught from the open window.

• noun

  Every autumn he climbs a ladder to clear leaves from the gutter.

• verb

  The last torches gutter as the storm forces its way under the door.

Where does gutter come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word came into English around the year 1300 from the Old French goutiere or gotiere, meaning a channel or pipe for draining water. That word was built on goute, the French descendant of the Latin gutta, which literally meant 'a drop' of liquid. The connection makes good sense, since a gutter is the channel that catches and carries away the drops running off a roof or a road. Over the centuries the noun also took on figurative shades: 'the gutter' came to stand for the lowest, dirtiest level of society, and a candle was said to gutter when melted wax ran down it in drops and the flame flickered. The double t in the spelling traces straight back to the Latin gutta, which is a useful memory hook, since the trap with this word is remembering to double that middle consonant.

How the word is built

• gutt- (from Latin gutta: a drop of water)
• -er (noun forming suffix denoting a thing that does an action)