The origin of the word dates back to 1300-50, middle English “de”. In Latin, the word “given” is datum. The word die, as it is today, in this context, presumably, comes from this origin, “given, put, placed” therefore also meaning “played, or cast.”
In that day and age, dies referred to stamping processes like creating coins or casting of items – usually in metal – made from dies. In the 1800’s, a new invention was created for mass production – die-cutting. The old term “die” (creation by machination) was combined with “cut” (the act of cutting out a shape) to create the term “die-cutting”. It is unknown who first coined the term “die-cutting” which appears in the English lexicon in the mid-1800s.