Skip to main content
cutup

cutup

9.3
A piece of writing or film made by cutting parts of other writing and putting them together
  • noun
  • /ˈkʌtʌp/
  • Literature
translation icon : collage
  • Writers sometimes use a cutup to generate unexpected ideas and creative inspiration.

Examples

  • His latest cutup was featured in an art exhibit.

  • The artist presented a cutup of classic movie scenes at the experimental film festival.

  • She published a cutup poem made from magazine headlines and song lyrics.

  • I wrote a cutup using old newspaper articles.

  • The artist created a fascinating cutup film by rearranging scenes from classic movies.

  • In his latest project, the writer used a cutup technique to transform well-known poems into a new narrative.

  • The experimental video is a brilliant cutup that combines snippets of various documentaries.

Surface Forms

cutup singular
cutups plural

Morphology

cutup = cut + up (transparent) = cut + up

Literally a piece produced by cutting up existing material, so the sense is directly and transparently derived from 'cut' + 'up'.

Etymology

Cutup is also a name for an art piece made by literally cutting something into parts — from cut + up — and putting the pieces in a new order, a helpful way to remember that a cutup is made by 'cutting up' and rearranging text or film to make surprising new ideas.