scuttlebutt
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scuttlebutt
- /ˈskʌtəlbʌt/ UK
- /ˈskʌtəlˌbʌt/ US
- [-ɾəl-] US
Where it comes from
The noun is derived from scuttle (“to cut a hole through (something)”) + butt (“wooden cask”). Noun sense 2 (“gossip, idle chatter; rumour”) refers to the fact that sailors would gather around the scuttlebutt to drink and exchange gossip; compare furphy and water cooler.
The verb is derived from the noun.
noun scuttlebutts · scuttle-butt
- Originally (now chiefly historical), a cask with a hole cut into its top, used to provide drinking water on board a ship; now (by extension, informal), a drinking fountain on a modern ship. [S]o they continue to fire as directed, until they are either sent down to the cock-pit themselves, or have a momentary respite from their exertions, when, choaked with smoke and gunpowder, they go aft to the scuttle-butt, to remove their parching thirst.
- Gossip, idle chatter; also, rumour. "That's the scuttlebutt," Bronson said defiantly. "You got some pet coolie down there you want to put in Chien's place." / "Who told you that?" / "It's just scuttlebutt." / "Scuttlebutt travels on words." Holman's voice was shaking. "You tell me one man you heard say that, or I'll beat your fat face
verb scuttlebutts · scuttlebutting · scuttlebutted · scuttle-butt
- To spread (information) by way of gossip or rumour. The Pentagon rumor factory hasn't been very busy lately, but some reports are being scuttlebutted about that the U.S. military chiefs are being downgraded in the pecking order and that their military advice has been bypassed or ignored by the Carter Administration.
- To chat idly or gossip; also, to spread rumours. During the fighting for Manila, it was scuttle-butted among the troops that they must never put pin-up pictures on the walls of the Manila Hotel because Mrs. [Douglas] MacArthur owned fifty per cent of the property and Brigadier General Courtney Whitney, of MacArthur's staff, owned the other half.
