# Cutting etymology, re: flatulence
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 23, 2023, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995 "2023-06-23T14:24:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/1 "2023-06-23T14:24:06Z")
We say, ‘ **Cut** a fart.’ How did that come to be? Are there other expressions in which we use ‘cut’, where we’re not actually cutting something? I mean, we ‘cut a record’; but that comes from actually cutting grooves into a disc. A film director says, ‘Cut!’ They’re not actually cutting the film, but they’re ‘cutting (stopping) the activity’. ‘He cut to the chase’ is different from ‘He cut a fart’ because the former came from literally cutting a piece of film and splicing the chase scene. But ‘cut a fart’? I’m not seeing where it comes from.
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/2 "2023-06-23T14:27:12Z")
Maybe it’s from the expression “To Cut the Cheese” for flatulence.
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### Author:  [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/3 "2023-06-23T14:30:20Z")
You’re letting out gas, then cutting it off?
Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it phrased that way. Do people actually say, “cut a fart”?
Also, a director calls “Cut” because they used to literally cut the film at the end of a scene.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/4 "2023-06-23T14:32:11Z")
> [@tofor](#):
>
> Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it phrased that way. Do people actually say, “cut a fart”?
Yes.
> [@Hypno-Toad](#):
>
> Maybe it’s from the expression “To Cut the Cheese” for flatulence.
That sounds reasonable. I haven’t used ‘cut the cheese’ since I was a kid, except when I’m literally cutting cheese and I \*snerk\* about it.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/5 "2023-06-23T14:32:37Z")
> [@tofor](#):
>
> Do people actually say, “cut a fart”?
They did when I was a kid, but I can’t remember hearing it at all recently.
I like @Hypno-Toad’s suggestion, but I have no idea if it’s the correct one.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/6 "2023-06-23T14:32:50Z")
We can “cut and run” as well. It isn’t clear exactly what that means, I always took it to mean somethin akin to a prisioner cutting bindings (rchains) that is holding him and running away.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/7 "2023-06-23T14:57:14Z")
We “cut classes” in school. We often use “cut off” to mean “terminate” or “end” rather than meaning “sever”.
I think “cut” in relation to flatulence is about the initial release and final terminate process. Cutting the flow.
Ultimately it’s idiom; it doesn’t have to make sense in terms of the literal definitions of the individual words. A vague logical connection is often more than enough.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/8 "2023-06-23T15:02:30Z")
“Cut the cheese” makes sense. If you cut open or slice off a hunk of pungent cheese, like Limburger, it releases a scent that some might find unpleasant.
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/9 "2023-06-23T15:18:15Z")
I’ve never heard “cut a fart”.
I’ve heard “rip a fart”
(Leslie Neilsen’s tombstone would agree)
[ ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Leslie_Nielsen_Headstone.jpg)
Also, you can cut a check.
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/10 "2023-06-23T15:21:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> I think “cut” in relation to flatulence is about the initial release and final terminate process. Cutting the flow.
I don’t know but it doesn’t sound right to me. When we complain about someone cutting a fart, we aren’t complaining that they stopped.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/11 "2023-06-23T15:26:29Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#):
>
> We can “cut and run” as well. It isn’t clear exactly what that means, I always took it to mean somethin akin to a prisioner cutting bindings (rchains) that is holding him and running away.
I feel it means you are cutting off whatever activity you are in the middle of doing in order to leave.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/12 "2023-06-23T15:29:40Z")
[ ](https://photos1.blogger.com/img/22/3719/640/frazz%206-3.jpg)
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/13 "2023-06-23T16:17:24Z")
I agree that it’s derived from “cut the cheese”. _The Historical Dictionary of American Slang_ defines cut (definition 13) as “to expel intestinal gas” and refers to “cut the cheese” and “cut one’s finger”. The earliest citation for “cut” in this sense is 1967; the earliest citation for “cut the cheese” is 1959 (although there’s a definition of “cheezer” meaning “a strong-smelling fart” from a 1811 dictionary) and the earliest citation for “cut one’s finger” is 1899.
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### Author:  [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/14 "2023-06-23T16:21:25Z")
> [@tofor](#):
>
> You’re letting out gas, then cutting it off?
This. Your anus cuts the column of gas coming out of your bowels. You can even control the cutting at will.
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### Author:  [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/15 "2023-06-23T16:28:59Z")
> [@tofor](#):
>
> You’re letting out gas, then cutting it off?
You may have answered a related question: In my youth we’d note that so and so “let one.”
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/16 "2023-06-23T16:45:00Z")
That reminds me of the dumb and scatological joke from when I was a kid.
Spoilered because poop.
Why are turds tapered?
So your asshole doesn’t slam shut.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/17 "2023-06-23T17:06:51Z")
> [@2\_More\_Bits](#):
>
> In my youth we’d note that so and so “let one.”
My dad would say, ‘Let wind.’
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### Author:  [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/18 "2023-06-23T20:17:43Z")
> [@gnoitall](#):
>
> That reminds me of the dumb and scatological joke from when I was a kid.
>
> Spoilered because poop.
>
> Why are turds tapered?
>
> So your asshole doesn’t slam shut.
In college, I was introduced to the term “pinch a loaf” for having a bowel movement
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/19 "2023-06-23T21:11:38Z")
Talented dancers cut a rug, experienced users cut their teeth.
> [@Moriarty](#):
>
> (Leslie Neilsen’s tombstone would agree)
He would know:
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/k1ztkOcJrNE/maxresdefault.jpg "Leslie Nielsen Brings His Fart Machine To "Late Night" | Late Night with Conan O’Brien") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1ztkOcJrNE)
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### Author:  [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2023, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-etymology-re-flatulence/985995/20 "2023-06-23T22:04:03Z")
A much more common term involving fart cutting is to ‘[cut one loose](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cut_one_loose)’.
It has the sense of letting something run free or escape, eg when a horse cuts loose from the herd or a boat is unmoored and drifts away.
This usage is very apt for fartage.
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