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Origin of the word scuttlebutt1/2/2024 ![]() ![]() In those days, the ship’s officers shouted their commands to the sailors so casual conversation amongst the swabbies was not encouraged. So, the English and their American cousins called the hatch or opening where the butt (water cask) was stored the “scuttlebutt.” The term first came into usage around the turn of the 19th century.Īt that time, a large cask of water was commonly called a “butt.” The word “scuttle” was an English corruption of the French “escoutilles” meaning the hatch on a ship, then a hole or hatchway - it was later that to “scuttle a ship” meant to open hatchways or holes to let in water and sink the vessel. We listened to their story and returned to confirm what we’d heard. While there they were treated to the explanation of the origin of the term “scuttlebutt.” This made them think of the Director and his quests for term background information. They’d been touring the East Coast and visited “Old Ironsides” - the USS Constitution. They mentioned that they had just returned from a trip where they encountered a site that made them think of us (the Vice President and myself). The entire corporation, the CEO, the Vice President of Research and the lone employee not in management (me), were out for a morning constitutional and we encountered some FOT (Friends of Twoey). Real scuttlebutts have long since passed into naval history (though I am told that the word continues to be used in the US Navy for a drinking fountain) and the word has shifted its meaning to the rumour and gossip itself rather than the place where one exchanged it.It happened again. This is how Herman Melville put it in White Jacket or The World in a Man-of-War of 1850: “There is no part of a frigate where you will see more going and coming of strangers, and overhear more greetings and gossipings of acquaintances, than in the immediate vicinity of the scuttle-butt, just forward of the main-hatchway, on the gun-deck.” Today’s office water coolers have pretty much the same ambience. It was the one place where members of the crew on duty in various parts of the ship could meet and talk during the working day. Fresh water was so precious that a guard was often posted by the scuttlebutt to ensure that water was only taken to drink and not, for example, to wash clothes with. ![]() So it became known as the scuttlebutt - the cask with a hatch in it. To make it easier to scoop the water out with a tin pot or dipper, the head of the cask would be removed. It was usual to have a water cask on deck so that the crew had easy access to drinking water during the day. The verb to scuttle dates from the mid 17th century, at first in the sense of sinking a ship specifically by cutting holes in it - today we use it for doing so by any means. It’s of uncertain origin, but might be from the Old French escoutille, meaning a hatchway. That’s been around since the fifteenth century, when sailors called any smallish hatchway or opening in the deck a scuttle, especially if it was covered with a lid of some sort it was the usual term for an opening to let in light or air. The sense we want is the one of a hole cut in a ship’s timbers. Nor is it the one that means to move with short quick steps, perhaps like a spider that comes from an old English dialect word. It’s not the flattish open container, made of wickerwork at one time, whose name survives in coal scuttle that’s Old English, from Latin scutella for a dish or platter (its first sense in English). The first half appears in the language in several senses with different origins, so we have to be sure we’ve got the right one. Do you have any thoughts on this?Ī The second half is easy enough - a butt is just the old word for a large cask. ![]() Q From Clair Merritt: My friend and I have been trying to figure out the origin of the word scuttlebutt.
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