▪ 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’.
| [1802 J. Wilson (Congleton) MS. Let. 17 Apr. to J. Boucher, Butty, going Halves, Chesh. Staff.] 1865 [see butty-lark]. 1875 Lanc. 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.
| 1845 Disraeli Sybil (1863) 116 A Butty in the mining districts is a middleman: a Doggy is his manager. 1873 Echo 22 Sept. 2/2 ‘Butties’..can make {pstlg}3 a week without difficulty. 1886 Law 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.
| 1845 Penny Cycl. 1st Supp. I. 380/2 The miners entertain a bitter dislike to the ‘butty’ system. 1848 Fraser's Mag. XXXVII. 383 A sort of middlemanship, somewhat of the nature of the ‘butty’ system carried on in Staffordshire. 1881 Goldw. 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.
| 1909 Quiller Couch True Tilda ix, With two horses hauling at the first [barge], and the second (which Sam called a butty-boat) towed astern. 1923 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 663/2, I overhauled two barges, the foremost with its little steam-engine towing the second or ‘butty’. 1946 Archit. 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.
| 1855 Mrs. 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. 1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 121 Buttie, general in North for a piece of bread and butter (together with jam-buttie). 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren ix. 162 Spread it on the butty nice and thick. 1965 Oxford Mail 17 Nov. 11/5 The biggest jam butty in the world. |