local. Also 8 tote, tet-. [Origin unascertained.] Orig. in the Cornish tin-mines, now also in Derbysh. lead-mining: in the phrase upon tut (also by the tut), and attrib. as tut-bargain, -man, -work (also as vb.), -worker, -working, -workman: denoting a system of payment by measurement or by the piece, adopted in paying for work that brings no immediate returns, as distinct from TRIBUTE 3; hence, work of this character; dead-work.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 180. [Under certain conditions] they set it to be sunk, driven, stoped, or cut down upon Tut; and in such case the Miners take what they term a Tut-bargain; that is, a piece or part of unmeasured ground, by the lump, for such price as can be agreed upon. Ibid., 184. The great inconvenience that attends this Tut-work or bargains by the lump or by the fathom, is, that if the ground proves hard and chargeable in the working, the labourer has no ability to go through with it.
1790. Grose, Provinc. Gloss. (ed. 2), s.v., To do work by the tut, or tote; to undertake it by the great. West.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xxvi. (ed. 3), 252. Tutwork … consists in sinking shafts, driving levels, and making excavations.
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornw., etc. xv. 567. Persons performing the work under the captains in the various parts of mines may … be divided into tributers, tutworkmen, and labourers.
1855. J. R. Leifchild, Cornwall Mines, 147. The tutworkers, or tutmen, can readily judge of the hardness of the ground to be excavated. Ibid., 152. Dolcoath miners,… blasting and breaking, tutworking and tributing. Ibid., 175. Details of Expenses…. Tutwork Bargains.
1874. J. H. Collins, Metal Mining, 40. Shafts are sunk and levels driven, in Cornwall and elsewhere, at a fixed rate per lineal fathom…. This form of bargain is called tutwork.
1906. G. R. Lewis, in Victoria Co. Hist., Cornw., I. 568/2. The workmen … are, either tribute, tut, or daymen,… the tut worker contracting, at a certain rate for the sinking of shafts and … driving of levels.
b. Also in agricultural work (in s.w. counties).
1800. Sir J. Call, in Commun. to Board of Agric., II. 482. Labourers and mechanics, who, instead of living with their employers,… have … undertaken tet-work, or worked for daily hire.
1854. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XV. II. 401. The [Dorset] labourers are paid by ‘tut’ work, the dung-put fillers being paid by the square yard, and the spreaders and ploughmen by the acre.
1865. Daily Tel., 16 Nov., 3/5. He had had only one week of tut-work since harvest, when he earned 1s. extra. Mr. Bartlett … admitted that,… when he worked by the day, he gave him only 8s. a week, but he let him have his thatching and other tut-work, including hedging.
