Entry · catalog no. 1068

cut out

/ /kʌt ˈaʊt/ /kuht-OWT

verb · Harlem, New York; nationwide · 1930s

✓ Verified

To leave; to depart a place.

“It's getting late, I'm about to cut out.”

Origin & Attribution

Defined in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary (1938) as "to leave, to depart," with the example "I cut out from the joint in early bright." Nearly a century on it is still ordinary Black speech — one of the jive-era words that never left the language it came from.

1938

Defined in Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary

2020s

Still ordinary Black speech

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The Northeast

Harlem, New York; nationwide · 1930s

Spoken by

Harlem swing musicians; still ordinary Black speech

$CUTOUTThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

88 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

55/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1938

in the culture

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

Hear it spoken

By region — how it actually sounds

@bxgriot

The Bronx, NY

@phillyanne

Philadelphia, PA

Contribute your pronunciation

Citations & Sources

■

Cab Calloway, Hepster's Dictionary: A Guide to the Language of Jive — dictionary · 1938

submitted

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