Meaning
Rumour, gossip, or unofficial chatter, especially the kind that circulates informally within an organization. Informal and now chiefly American in flavour, though widely understood. It usually implies unverified talk rather than authoritative news, and it can still literally name a ship's drinking fountain in naval use. Informal, mildly jocular, and strongest in American English. Regional use: General English (chiefly American).
Origin
Literally a scuttled butt: a butt (cask) of the crew's drinking water with a hole cut, or scuttled, into it, kept on deck. Merriam-Webster dates the first known use to circa 1805 and Random House to 1795-1805; the earliest print citation usually cited is Frederick Marryat's The King's Own (1830), followed by Dana (1840) and Melville (1851). Because the crew gathered at the cask to drink, the word transferred to the gossip swapped there, the ancestor of water-cooler talk. That slang sense is American: Random House dates it to 1900-05, while Merriam-Webster's note says only that the transfer happened over time. In the US Navy scuttlebutt also remains the ordinary word for a drinking fountain.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- scuttlebutt has it that
- the scuttlebutt
Usage Examples
- According to the scuttlebutt in the break room, the merger will be announced before the holidays.
- I don't put much stock in locker-room scuttlebutt, but even the coaches seem nervous.
- The scuttlebutt says the restaurant is closing, though the owner insists business is fine.