Scuttlebutt

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Amanda from La Mesa, California.

Hi, Amanda. How are you doing?

I’m doing well.

What can we help you with?

Well, I had a question about a word that I’ve used a bunch, and it’s scuttlebutt.

Scuttlebutt.

Scuttlebutt.

Scuttlebutt.

Yes.

And how do you use it?

Well, I use it as kind of a synonym for gossip.

Mm—

Mm—

And I feel like it’s a word I’ve kind of always known.

I don’t really remember learning it.

But when I used it recently, my roommate just kind of gave me a look

And didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.

Really?

So I was kind of wondering where it came from and how common it is.

And so you’re understanding that scuttlebutt means gossip?

Yes.

Yeah, so you ask somebody for the latest scuttlebutt on this or that.

Yeah.

It’s kind of interesting.

You’re not in the military, perhaps, are you?

Navy or Air Force or anything like that?

I’m not, but I live right by San Diego.

It’s kind of a military town.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, there’s that.

Yeah, and Grant’s right.

It does have a very clear and very picturesque etymology because on a ship back in the old days,

A scuttlebutt was the place that you went to get water, get something to drink.

And a scuttlebutt was a kind of cask that had a hole cut in it.

And you would dip your spoon or your ladle in that.

And it would be like a drinking fountain or the water cooler or maybe the coffee pot in an office today.

Exactly.

So scuttlebutt is a literal synonym for water cooler talk.

That’s what we would say in American office environments today, right?

Yeah, that’s funny.

Because just any place where people gather to drink, they talk.

Yeah.

And it’s an interesting origin because the word butt, B-U-T-T, also meant cask, like a container for water.

And scuttle, if you scuttle something, like you scuttle a ship, you cut a hole in it so that it’ll sink and you’ll get rid of it.

So a scuttled butt, later scuttlebutt, was a kind of cask that had a hole cut out of it so that you could reach in and get the water out.

Okay.

So there you go.

There you go.

And I asked about the military connection because just because that vague idea of anybody who might be at sea might be more likely to know the term.

Yeah.

Okay.

Cool.

Interesting.

Thanks.

So you can pass this along to your roomie now.

Yeah, and stop gossiping about people.

I got some good stuff on Grant.

Oh, hello.

Call me later, okay?

I want to know.

What is it?

My life’s boring.

Thanks for calling, Amanda.

Much appreciated.

All right, thanks.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

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