suttle

“Suttle” is a common misspelling of the word subtle, which variously means “faint,” “delicate in meaning,” “slight,” and “cunning.”

It’s not too surprising people commonly misspell subtle as “suttle”: we don’t pronounce the B in this word.

Example: When I wrote the word “suttle” in my final paper, my teacher gave me a not-so-subtle correction by circling my misspelling in red several times.

Subtle, the correct spelling of “suttle,” was first recorded in Middle English as sotil in the late 1200s. (Our struggles with spelling subtle are far from new.) The Middle English sotil was borrowed from French, and ultimately goes back to the Latin subtilis, which means “finely spun (as of textiles),” “slender,” and “thin.”

So, why do we spell subtle with a B if we don’t say it? Well, as the above origin shows, we didn’t always spell it with a B. The Middle English sotil had no B, just as its French sources (for example, Old French sotil) had no B.

French descended from Latin, and changed many of the sounds and forms of its original parent language along the way. That included losing the B, among other things, in Latin’s subtilis.

But, around the 1500s, the English spelling of the word started adding back in the B to subtle so the word corresponded more clearly with its Latin root, subtilis. Another familiar word respelled this way is debt.

What are some other forms of subtle?

• subtlety
• subtly
• subtleness 

What are some synonyms for subtle?

• faint
• sophisticated 
• understated
• indirect
• tricky
• sly

What are some words that share a root or word element with subtle?

• subtile
• text
• textile
• submarine
• submerge

What are some words that often get used with subtle?

• (subtle) hint
• (subtle) suggestion
• (subtle) meaning
• (subtle) change
• (subtle) scent
• (subtle) flavor

Whether misspelled by accident or lack of knowledge about its proper form, “suttle” gets used in the same way as subtle.

Damn so we just going to sleep on the suttle drip from my boy Nathan Drake! pic.twitter.com/4Oe5ZMCij5

— Lord Skeptical (@LukeDouglas_AK) September 26, 2019

Experimenting with suttle lighting/ shading pic.twitter.com/T57OhaqG2J

— Mr.Raccoon (@MrRaccoon1999) September 22, 2019

I never know what to get my brother for his birthday so I gotta be suttle on question asking pic.twitter.com/9AbXuO89pY

— Danielle 🐾 (@Danniishelleyxx) September 20, 2019

Which of the following is an antonym of subtle?

A. understated
B. profound
C. ignorant
D. sophisticated