English

Etymology

From Middle French guttural, from New Latin gutturālis, from Latin guttur (throat) + -ālis.

Senses 4 and 5 apparently by conflation with gut and gutter respectively.[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡʌtəɹəl/
    • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): [ˈɡʌɾɚɫ̩]
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌtəɹəl

Adjective

guttural (comparative more guttural, superlative most guttural)

  1. Sounding harsh and throaty.
    Arabic is considered a very guttural language, with many harsh consonants.
    • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
      The departure was not unduly prolonged. [] Within the door Mrs. Spoker hastily imparted to Mrs. Love a few final sentiments on the subject of Divine Intention in the disposition of buckets; farewells and last commiserations; a deep, guttural instigation to the horse; and the wheels of the waggonette crunched heavily away into obscurity.
  2. (phonetics) having a place of articulation towards the back of the mouth; in modern use, uvular, pharyngeal, or glottal; in earlier or non-technical use, also including velar.[2]
  3. (medicine, anatomy) Of, relating to, or connected to the throat.
    guttural duct of the ear;   guttural pouch infection
  4. (proscribed)[3][1] visceral
    • 2019 March 10, Beandrea July, "'Darlin'': Film Review | SXSW 2019" Hollywood Reporter
      It’s taking on the social wing of horror (popularized by Jordan Peele’s 2017 hit Get Out) without giving up the guttural antics of a slasher film.
    • 2022 June 28, "Gloria Steinem, the Duchess of Sussex, and Jessica Yellin on Abortion Rights, the ERA, and Why They Won’t Give Up Hope" Vogue
      M[eghan, the Duchess of Sussex]: They may target women, but the consequences impact all of us. My husband and I talked about that a lot over the past few days. He’s a feminist too. ... And his reaction last week was guttural, like mine.
    • 2022 October, Anand Giridharadas, "The Uncomfortable Truths That Could Yet Defeat Fascism" The New York Times:
      In their own circles and sometimes in public, these organizers warn that the right is outcompeting small-d democrats in its psychological insight into voters and their anxieties, its messaging, its knack for narrative, its instinct to make its cause not just a policy program but also a home offering meaning, comfort and belonging. They worry, meanwhile, that their own allies can be hamstrung by a naïve and high-minded view of human nature, a bias for the wonky over the guttural, a self-sabotaging coolness toward those who don’t perfectly understand, a quaint belief in going high against opponents who keep stooping to new lows and a lack of fight and a lack of talent at seizing the mic and telling the kinds of galvanizing stories that bend nations’ arcs.
  5. (proscribed)[1] crass, vulgar, low, base

Translations

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Benjamin Zimmer Language Log, 6 November 2005 "GUTTURAL POLITICS"
  2. ^ R. L. Trask A Dictionary of Phonetics (Routledge 1996) p. 164
  3. ^ Dot Wordsworth, The Spectator 30 June 2022, "Does Meghan Markle know what ‘guttural’ means? Possibly, she meant visceral"

Noun

guttural (plural gutturals)

  1. A harsh and throaty spoken sound
    • 1899, Stanley Waterloo, The Wolf's Long Howl[1]:
      He was hairy, and his speech of rough gutturals was imperfect.
    • 1912, Frederic Stewart Isham, A Man and His Money[2]:
      He seems quite an exception to some husbands in that respect!" remarked the Berliner in deep gutturals.
    • 1919, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jungle Tales of Tarzan[3]:
      "Teeka is Tarzan's," said the ape-man, in the low gutturals of the great anthropoids.

Translations


French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from New Latin gutturālis.

Pronunciation

Adjective

guttural (feminine gutturale, masculine plural gutturaux, feminine plural gutturales)

  1. guttural (of a consonant)
  2. (relational) throat; guttural

Further reading


German

Pronunciation

Adjective

guttural (strong nominative masculine singular gutturaler, comparative gutturaler, superlative am gutturalsten)

  1. guttural

Declension

Further reading

  • guttural” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • guttural” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon