butty meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

butty

noun

/ˈbʊti/ · /ˈbʌti/

Etymology Clipping of buttered sandwich or bun + -y. Compare Saterland Frisian Buutje (“buttered bread (sandwich)”).

Ireland, New Zealand, Northern England, UK A sandwich, usually with a hot or cold savoury filling buttered in a barmcake. The most common are chips, bacon, sausage and egg.

Let's have a bacon butty!

Derived terms: bacon butty, chip butty
Related terms: sanger, sango, sarnie

butty

verb

Etymology Unknown. Perhaps from booty.

UK, Archaic, Dialectal To work together; to keep company with.

I butty with Jackson.

Shropshire, Archaic To cohabit; to reside with another as a couple.

Did'n'ee 'ear as Jim Tunkiss brought three children to the parish? I reckon 'e inna married, but 'e's bin buttyin' along o' one o' them Monsells.

Yorkshire, Archaic To act in concert with intent to defraud; to play unfairly.

Synonyms: cohabit, live in sin, live over the brush, con, trick

butty

adj

Etymology From butt (“type of cart”) + -y.

Ireland, West Country, Dated Resembling a heavy cart.

Shall it be a giggy thing, or a carty thing, or a butty thing?

butty

noun

Etymology Unknown. Perhaps from booty.

UK, Wales, West Country, Colloquial A friend.

Business, Mining A miner who works under contract, receiving a fixed amount per ton of coal or ore.

But Alfred Charlesworth did not forgive the butty these public-house sayings. Consequently, although Morel was a good miner, sometimes earning as much as five pounds a week when he married, [...]1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 1, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

UK, Colloquial A workmate.

UK, Archaic, Dialectal A drudge; a cat's paw; someone who does the hard work; someone who is being taken advantage of by someone else.

Ah didn't play butty, ah promise yer. Yo all on yer mek the poor lad yer butty.

Shropshire, Archaic One of a pair of shoes or gloves.

I've fund one shoe, but canna see the butty no-weer.

Synonyms: chum, fam, mate, mucker, colleague, partner, workmate, workfellow
Derived terms: butty-brew, butty collier, butty-gang, butty-lark, butty-man, butty-piece, butty-shop, do butty, go butty, play butty

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.