ruttle

English

Etymology

From Middle English rotelen, ratelen (“to make a rattling sound while breathing, flap”), from Middle Dutch rotelen (“to rattle, wheeze, drone”) or Middle Low German rōtelen, rātelen, rūtelen (“to groan, gasp, rattle”), from Old Saxon hrot, hrod (“snot, mucus”), from Proto-West Germanic *hroþ (“saliva, mucus, snot”). Cognate with Dutch reutelen (“to rattle”), German Rotz (“snot”).

Noun

ruttle (plural ruttles)

1. (chiefly Northern England) A rattling sound in the throat arising from difficulty in breathing.
   • 2018, Sotirios Fouzas et al., “Clinical Usefulness of Breath Sounds”, in Kostas Priftis et al., editors, Breath Sounds: From Basic Science to Clinical Practice, page 44:

     The most common cause of ruttles is acute viral bronchitis and, in young children, upper airway viral infection.

Verb

ruttle (third-person singular simple present ruttles, present participle ruttling, simple past and past participle ruttled)

1. (intransitive, chiefly Northern England) To gurgle; to rattle when breathing.
   • 1973, Ronald Illingworth, Common Symptoms of Disease in Children, page 144:

     Ruttling, heard readily without a stethoscope, is due to air bubbling through fluid in the trachea or bronchi.

   • 2020, Marly Youmans, Charis in the World of Wonders: A Novel Set in Puritan New England, page 216:

     His breath ruttled as he blew outward and sent the plants to trembling.

Further reading

• “ruttle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• 1886, Robert Eden George Cole, A Glossary of Words Used in South-west Lincolnshire: (Wapentake of Graffoe), page 122:

  RUTTLE v.—To make a noise in the throat in breathing, as a dying person often does. "He ruttles a deal in his throat. She woke her husband ruttling. He's been ruttling like that all night." RUTTLING, s.—The noise in the throat in breathing, caused by want of power to raise the phlegm. "As soon as the ruttling stopped he was gone by that."

Anagrams

• Lutter, Turtle, turlet, turtle