scuttlebutt (2009-09-04)

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['skê-d(ê)l-bêt or 'skê-t(ê)l-bêt]

Definition: The drinking fountain aboard a ship; (colloquial U.S.) idle gossip, rumor emanating from the water cooler.

Usage: Remember, this word is not a synonym of "gossip" and should be restricted to the office (or on board ship), places which afford drinking fountains or water coolers, "Raymond, scuttlebutt has it you are in line for a big transmotion." "Have you heard the scuttlebutt about the boss's wife? They say she had one facelift too many and now every time she sits down she grins."

Suggested Usage: On shore, the word is used widely as a synonym for gossip but should be restricted to the gossip likely to be picked up at the water cooler or fountain. Today's word has no correlate verb or adjective.

Etymology: From English (U.S.) navy slang of the 1930's from scuttle butt "drinking fountain on board a ship" derived from "scuttled butt," the keg for drinking water on board ship. Scuttle originally meant "to cut a hole in something," usually a boat or ship in order to sink it, but in this case, in a keg (butt) to allow access to the water within. "Butt" has nothing to do with what you were thinking but is from French "botte," "boute" (which underlies "bottle"), Spanish "bota," Italian "botte," all of which derive from Medieval Latin butta, buttis "cask." "Scuttlebutt" originated, then, as "scuttlebutt gossip" or gossip around the scuttlebutt aboard ship.