Etymology

From Nutte ‎(“young girl, young prostitute”) in the old German Low German dialect of Berlin. Further origin unsettled. Possibly from Middle Low German not, nōte ‎(“nut”) in the sense of “****, ****” (compare German Nuss, which has this sense in hunter′s jargon); or from Nut ‎(“furrow”), also in the aforementioned sense, but less probably, since this word is not Low German. An alternative hypothesis considers it a variation of Lütte (“little one”) from Middle Low German lüttel ‎(“small”), possibly through a merger with Hebrew נִדָּה ‎(niddā, “menstruating woman”), but the vocalism -u- does not quite agree with this. Finally, if the connection with prostitution were original, a relation with Middle Low German nütte ‎(“useful, profitable”) might be considered.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnʊtə/