- butcher
- c.1300, from Anglo-Norm. boucher, from O.Fr. bochier "butcher, executioner," probably lit. "slaughterer of goats" (12c., Mod.Fr. boucher), from bouc "male goat," from Frank. *bukk (see buck (n.1)) or Celtic *bukkos "he-goat." Related: Butchered; butchering. Figurative sense of "brutal murderer" is attested from 1520s. The verb is recorded from 1560s.