释义 |
▪ I. butty1 dial.|ˈbʌtɪ| [In sense 1 perh. a corruption of booty a. It is not clear whether sense 2 is the same word, but its identity seems not improbable; cf. similar use of gaffer.] 1. A confederate, companion, ‘mate’.
[1802J. Wilson (Congleton) MS. Let. 17 Apr. to J. Boucher, Butty, going Halves, Chesh. Staff.] 1865[see butty-lark]. 1875Lanc. Gloss. 63 Butty, a confederate. 2. A middleman between proprietors of mines and workmen, who engages to work the mine and raise coal or ore at so much per ton.
1845Disraeli Sybil (1863) 116 A Butty in the mining districts is a middleman: a Doggy is his manager. 1873Echo 22 Sept. 2/2 ‘Butties’..can make {pstlg}3 a week without difficulty. 1886Law Times LXXX. 166/2 The butties who had a contract with Earl Granville to raise and get the ironstone from the mine at 4s. 10d. per ton. 3. Comb. and attrib., as butty-collier, butty-system; also butty-gang, a gang of men to whom a portion of the work in some large engineering enterprise is allotted, and who divide the proceeds equally among themselves.
1845Penny Cycl. 1st Supp. I. 380/2 The miners entertain a bitter dislike to the ‘butty’ system. 1848Fraser's Mag. XXXVII. 383 A sort of middlemanship, somewhat of the nature of the ‘butty’ system carried on in Staffordshire. 1881Goldw. Smith Lett. & Ess. 164 He [Mr. Brassey] favoured the butty-gang system, that of letting work to a gang of a dozen men, who divide the pay, allowing something extra to the head of the gang. 4. In full butty-boat, a second barge or freight-boat in tow by a first.
1909Quiller Couch True Tilda ix, With two horses hauling at the first [barge], and the second (which Sam called a butty-boat) towed astern. 1923Blackw. Mag. Nov. 663/2, I overhauled two barges, the foremost with its little steam-engine towing the second or ‘butty’. 1946Archit. Rev. C. 161/1 They [sc. barges] go in pairs, a diesel-engined motor boat and a butty boat towed behind... The cabin of the butty is down into the bottom of the boat. ▪ II. ˈbutty2 north. dial. Also buttie. [f. butter n.1 + -y6.] A slice of bread and butter.
1855Mrs. Gaskell North & S. II. xi. 142 He's always mithering me for ‘daddy’ and ‘butty’; and I ha' no butties to give him, and daddy's away. 1927W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 121 Buttie, general in North for a piece of bread and butter (together with jam-buttie). 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren ix. 162 Spread it on the butty nice and thick. 1965Oxford Mail 17 Nov. 11/5 The biggest jam butty in the world. |