veal cutlet, 1854, from German Schnitzel "cutlet," literally "a slice," with -el, diminutive suffix + Schnitz "a cut, slice" (+ -el, diminutive suffix), from schnitzen "to carve," frequentative of schneiden "to cut," from Old High German snidan, cognate with Old English sniþan "to cut," from Proto-Germanic *snitt-ja-, from PIE root *sneit- "to cut."