utter [OE] There are two utters in English. Old English, ūttra meaning ‘outer’, is the comparative of ūt ‘out’, just as inner is of in; it was in very frequent use in this sense from around 1400 to 1620 (Milton, Paradise Lost: ‘Drive them out From all Heav’ns bounds into the utter Deep’). The sense ‘extreme, complete’ became very common from around 1515 (Shakespeare Henry VI, Part 1: ‘The utter losse of all the Realme’). The other utter [LME] is from Middle Dutch. An early, now obsolete use, was ‘put (goods) on to the market, sell’; later meaning ‘circulate (money) as legal tender’ and ‘publish’. The basic notion is one of ‘put forth’ which is carried over into the meaning ‘declare, speak’.