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The writer is from South Africa, as mentioned in the post. "Putter about" is definitely not a USAism, it's an English expression used throughout the anglophone
by elliotec 6y ago
The writer is from South Africa, as mentioned in the post. "Putter about" is definitely not a USAism, it's an English expression used throughout the anglophone world that can be spelled "putter" or "potter," meaning the same thing. I've only heard it pronounced "putter" personally. The stats are interesting!
- yesenadam 6y agoYeah you're right. "Puttering about", with that sense of a machine chugging along, seems a different thing to pottering. Pottering in a garden seems more like patiently tinkering with something than continually moving from place to place.
- dagw 6y ago"putter" or "potter," meaning the same thing. I don't think they mean the same in British English. My motorboat "putters about the lake" while I "potter about in my garden". But I could be wrong.
- jfk13 6y agoI would have assumed "putter" (in this sense) is onomatopoeic, from the sound of a small engine running slowly. "Potter", OTOH, comes from a word for poking or prodding at the ground (hence appropriate for gardening). (I suppose with the right kind of ride-on mower, it's possible to "putter about the garden" with appropriate sound effects!) Checking OED citations, though, it seems the "putter" form (as a variant of "potter", distinct from the sound of an engine "puttering") does have a similar history (both go back to the 1820s). Still, I'd agree that "potter about the garden" is by far the more common usage.