The business of selling meat or a shop where meat is sold; also means cruel or clumsy killing or destruction.
From Old French 'boucherie' and 'boucher' (butcher), from 'bouc' meaning he-goat. The word broadened from a meat trade to mean any violent or crude destruction.
The word evolved from selling goat meat to describing any brutal killing or sloppy work—calling a bad performance a 'butchery' comes from the association of butchers with bloody, rough work!
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