What does cutlas mean?
"Cutlas" is a variant spelling of "cutlass", the short, broad, slightly curved sword famously carried by sailors from roughly the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. Its stout blade and compact length made it ideal for the cramped chaos of ship-to-ship boarding actions, where longer rapiers proved unwieldy among rigging and close quarters. The word traces back to French coutelas, itself derived ultimately from Latin cultellus, meaning a small knife — the same root that yields "cultivate" via colonus and the surgical "scalpel" through scalpellum. In modern English the spelling "cutlass" is overwhelmingly standard; "cutlas" survives chiefly in older texts, dialectal usage, and occasional informal contexts. Readers encountering "cutlas" today can safely read it as "cutlass": a single-edged naval sidearm whose image remains inseparable from pirates, privateers, and the age of fighting sail.
noun"Cutlas" is a variant, now largely nonstandard, spelling of "cutlass": a short, broad sword with a slightly curved blade, historically the standard sidearm of sailors and naval boarding parties.
- A short, broad-bladed, slightly curved sword used especially by sailors; the standard spelling is "cutlass".
"The old naval cutlas hung above the fireplace, its curved blade still glinting."
"The boarding party drew their cutlases as they swung aboard the merchantman."
"In the museum case lay a rusted cutlas recovered from a wreck off the coast."
Like other nouns ending in -s after -la-type stems, the plural adds -es: "cutlases" (standard spelling "cutlasses").
"A rack of cutlases lined the armory wall."
Before it named a sailor's blade, the cutlas's ancestor was the coutelas, a French peasant's heavy knife — the same Latin root that gives us 'scalpel'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cutlas
"Cutlas" derives from French coutelas, a heavy knife or short sword borrowed into English during the early modern period, with attested use by the late sixteenth century. The French term descends from Latin cultellus, a diminutive of culter, "knife," which also underlies words such as "scalpel." The spelling "cutlas" reflects one historical rendering of the borrowed name; English later standardized on "cutlass," making "cutlas" a recognized but now uncommon variant rather than a separate word.
How cutlas is actually used
"Cutlas" is best treated as a historical or variant spelling; in modern writing "cutlass" is strongly preferred and will be understood by all readers.
Easily confused with cutlas
"Cutlass" is the standard spelling of the word for the short curved naval sword; "cutlas" is an older or informal variant spelling referring to the same weapon.