Word.ws English Dictionary

pourcuttle

pourcuttle noun: a cephalopod with tentacles; an octopus or cuttlefish.

Noun

pourcuttle (plural pourcuttles)

  1. (obsolete) A cephalopod with tentacles; an octopus or cuttlefish.
    • The fish called a Pourcontrell [translating poulpe], or Manie-feet, changeth himselfe into what colour he lists, as occasion offereth it selfe; that so he may hide himselfe from what he feareth, and catch what he seeketh for.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

Forms of pourcuttle

pluralpourcuttles
alternative formpourcontrell
alternative formpourcontrel
alternative formpourcoutrel

Origin of pourcuttle

Uncertain first element + cuttle. The OED takes the forms with con to be easy misreadings of the earlier-attested cou (compare e.g. ouarine, a misreading of ouariue), but says pour- "can hardly stand for an earlier poul-" as on poulpe, polyp (compare polwygle, porwiggle as variants of pollywog).

Questions about pourcuttle

What does pourcuttle mean?
Pourcuttle means a cephalopod with tentacles; an octopus or cuttlefish.
What part of speech is pourcuttle?
Pourcuttle is a noun.
What is the plural of pourcuttle?
The plural of pourcuttle is pourcuttles.

Words near pourcuttle in the dictionary

  1. pourboire
  2. pourboires
  3. Pourciau
  4. Pourciaus
  5. pourcontrell
  6. pourcuttle
  7. pourcuttles
  8. pourdown
  9. pourdowns
  10. poured
  11. poured cats and dogs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pourcuttle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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