Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

In alt.usage.english, Edward wrote:

Is it spellcheckerese for cutypie/cuteypie/cut[e]y pie?

Seems like quite an ordinary word to me. It's in Merriam-Webter:

    Main Entry:        cut·up  
    Pronunciation:     'k&t-"&p
    Function:  noun
    Date:      1843
    : a person who clowns or acts boisterously

As a verb "cut up," it has

  2 : to behave in a comic, boisterous, or unruly manner : CLOWN

No mention of origin but I imagine it relates to "cut a caper" and "cut
a figure of fun." Examples of those from Mastertexts:

    the old sinner grinned in mockery. I thought he
    intended to cut a caper round the bed; but suddenly
    composing himself, he fell on his knees...
    Bronte_Emily/Wuthering_Heights/
     
    Here am I disguised; and, to the proof,
    do I not cut a figure of fun - a right fool's
    figure?"
    --Stevenson_Robert_Louis/ The_Black_Arrow

The only use of "cut up" to mean "clown" that I spotted among the many
MasterTexts hits (too many to read) is this:

    ... In the intervals of pandemonium, each chattered, cut up,
    hooted, screeched, and  danced, himself sufficient unto himself,
    filled with his own ideas ... London_Jack/ Before_Adam/

The others refer to literal cutting into pieces, or in the negative "to
feel dreadfully cut up" sense, like this:

    He'll be cut up over this, for the man has been in
    his service for years...
    Doyle_Arthur_Conan/Memoirs_of_Sherlock_Holmes

Easier to understand as "cut-up", though MWCD10 on line doesn't
explain why "to cut up" means "to behave in a comic, boisterous, or
unruly manner : CLOWN".

It means a clown. m-w.com gives a date of 1843 but does not discuss
derivation. I wonder if it's related to the expression "to cut a
caper"?

-skipka