Scuttlebutts

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large drinking cask on a ship used for storing fresh water
2. A source of informal conversation or rumors, often about the ship's crew or happenings
3. An informal term referring to gossip or chatter among sailors, originating from naval life

Etymology: The sailors' word "scuttlebutt" started out as a piece of ship's hardware. A scuttle is a hole cut through something, and a butt is a wooden cask, so a scuttlebutt was a cask with a hole cut into its side, from which crew could draw fresh drinking water. The cask stood on deck, and sailors gathered around it for their ration, which made it the natural place for talk. That gathering is where the meaning shifted. Crews who lingered at the cask swapped news, complaints and rumours while they drank, and "scuttlebutt" came to mean idle gossip or rumour. The plural form given here is simply the usual plural of that noun. Its sense of rumour is the one most people know today, and the verb, meaning to spread such talk, was formed from the noun.

Synonyms: rumors, gossip, chatter, conversation, news