buttinsky
nounUK /bʌˈtɪnski/ · US /bʌˈtɪnski/
Etymology From butt in (“to join a conversation or situation in which one is not welcome or invited, interject”) + -sky (a variant of -ski (suffix added to a word, name, or phrase to invoke Russianness, Polishness, or a more general Slavicness)), humorously modelled after Russian surnames, and originally and often used in the form of a surname.
Derogatory, Informal One who is prone to butt in, interrupt, or get involved where they are not welcome; a busybody.
- I wish I had never met that nosy buttinsky!
- Well, all right then! If you think I'm a buttinsky, then I'll just butt in!1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XX, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, section I, page 252:
2 more examples
- "Shut up, Garrett. I never," said Mr. Tallboy, extricating himself from Garrett's grasp and giving him a playful punch in the wind, "in my life, met with such a bunch of buttinskis as you are in this department. Nothing is sacred to you, not even a man's business correspondence."1933, Dorothy L[eigh] Sayers, “Murder Must Advertise. Chapter 4: Remarkable Acrobatics of a Harlequin.”, in The Five Red Herrings (Suspicious Characters): And Murder Must Advertise, Garden City, N.Y.: Nelson Doubleday, →OCLC, page 357:
- It is never pleasant for a man of sensibility to find himself regarded as a buttinski and a trailing arbutus, and it was thus, I could see at a g., that Wilbert Cream was pencilling me in.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter V, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC, page 50:
Communications, Electrical engineering, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Telecommunications Informal A robust portable one-piece telephone instrument with clips, used by technicians and lines staff for testing telephone circuits or making a temporary connection to a telephone line.
- Related terms
- butterinsky, back-seat driver, encroacher, gatecrasher, interloper, intruder, marplot, peeping tom, persona non grata, snoop, snooper