scuttlebutt
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈskʌtəlbʌt/
ipa: /ˈskʌtəlˌbʌt/
ipa: [-ɾəl-]
Forms: form: scuttlebutts
form: scuttle-butt
Etymology: The noun is derived from scuttle (“to cut a hole through (something)”) + butt (“wooden cask”). 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.
Senses: examples: text: [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.
ref: 1830, [Frederick Marryat], chapter VIII, in The King’s Own. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 93–94:
text: In this way, with an occasional break by relieving the wheel, heaving the log, and going to the scuttle-butt for a drink of water, the longest watch was passed away; […]
ref: 1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXXII, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, page 407:
text: The scuttle-butt is a goodly, round, painted cask, standing on end, and with its upper head removed, showing a narrow circular shelf within, where rest a number of tin cups for the accommodation of drinkers. Central, within the scuttle-butt itself, stands an iron pump, which, connecting with the immense water-tanks in the hold, furnishes an unfailing supply of the much-admired Pale Ale, first brewed in the brooks of the Garden of Eden, and stamped with the brand of our old father Adam, who never knew what wine was.
ref: 1850, Herman Melville, “A Man-of-War Fountain, and Other Things”, in White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers; London: Richard Bentley, published 1855, →OCLC, page 332:
text: It was the middle-watch: a fair moonlight; the seamen were standing in a cordon, extending from one of the fresh-water butts in the waist, to the scuttle-butt near the taffrail. In this manner, they passed the buckets to fill the scuttle-butt.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Hark!”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 217:
text: [T]he scuttle-butts are on the starboard side of the galley. You will find a bottle on one of them that will serve as a dipper. Drink moderately, for your life's sake, and get a pannikin from the galley and bring it aft, filled.
ref: 1880, W[illiam] Clark Russell, “The Survivors of the ‘Waldershare’”, in A Sailor’s Sweetheart. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Searle & Rivington, […], →OCLC, pages 273–274:
text: When the eight new tankers of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey start on their coastwise service, their crews will be assured of the proper preservation of their perishable foods. Carrier refrigerating systems will provide for the 1220 ft.³ refrigerator, chill room of 890 ft.³, and the scuttle butt with storage capacity of 40 gal. of drinking water.
ref: 1936 October, “Eight Tankers Equipped with Modern Facilities for Food Preservation”, in Refrigerating Engineering: Economic Application of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, volume 32, number 4, New York, N.Y.: American Society of Refrigerating Engineers, →OCLC, page 285, column 1:
text: Leaning over the scuttlebutt one afternoon, Bond suddenly realized he'd been gulping water for maybe a minute. […] The rest of the afternoon, all that night, and all the next day, his thirst was unquenchable. […] During the night he woke many times, his throat parched and burning, to crawl out of his sack and rush to the scuttlebutt for water.
ref: 1986, John Wheatcroft, Slow Exposures, Cranbury, N.J.; London: Cornwall Books, →ISBN, page 114:
text: During the midwatch a radioman striker (that is, a seaman trying to advance to radioman third class) was taking a drink of water from the third-deck scuttlebutt.
ref: 1991, Paul Stillwell, “The Tranquil Twenties: August 1921 – May 1929”, in Battleship Arizona: An Illustrated History, Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, page 79, column 1:
text: We all grabbed towels that belonged to whoever lived there, and we wet them down in the scuttlebutt and wrapped them around our faces to filter out as much smoke as possible.
ref: 2007, Joseph A[dam] Springer, Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II, St. Paul, Minn.: Zenith Press, →ISBN, page 218:
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: scuttle-cask
glosses: 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.
examples: text: "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 in!"
ref: 1962 September, Richard McKenna, chapter 9, in The Sand Pebbles […], New York, N.Y.; Evanston, Ill.: Harper & Row, →OCLC, page 137:
text: His resolve not to worry about unfounded scuttlebutt lasted about two minutes.
ref: 2003, Len Custer, Called to Serve: A Historical Novel of the Korean War, New York, N.Y.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 211:
text: They were bound this day for the city of Chicago, and the World's Columbian Exposition recently opened there. Since their orders had come through, the "scuttlebutt" among the excited and curious crew had been of little besides the fabled "White City," […]
ref: 2006, Thomas Pynchon, “The Light over the Ranges”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 3:
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: word: furphy
word: babble
word: bavardage
word: bibble-babble
word: blab
word: blabber
word: blabbing
word: blather
word: blathering
word: chatter
word: chinwag
word: chit-chat
word: claver
word: clepe
word: gabble
word: hot air
word: mardle
word: natter
word: palaver
word: prate
word: prattle
word: scuttlebutt
word: small talk
word: tattle
word: twaddle
word: waffle
word: yackety-yak
word: yap
word: yatter
word: clatfart
word: goss
word: gossip
word: gossipry
word: labrish
word: scuttlebutt
word: skeet
word: tale
word: tattle
word: tidbit
word: tittle-tattle
word: twittle-twattle
glosses: Gossip, idle chatter; also, rumour.