scuttlebutt

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 14, 2025 is: scuttlebutt \SKUTT-ul-butt\ noun Scuttlebutt refers to rumor or gossip—in other words, talk or stories about someone or something that may not be true. // According to the scuttlebutt in the financial markets, the company will be downsizing soon. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scuttlebutt) Examples: “If highly social otters want the local scuttlebutt, so to speak, they can pick up information through the scents fellow otters leave behind at communal latrines that a group of otters will create and use.” — Lisa Meyers McClintick, The Minnesota Star Tribune, 2 Mar. 2025 Did you know? When office workers catch up on the latest scuttlebutt around the water cooler, they are continuing a long-standing tradition that probably also occurred on sailing ships of yore. Back in the early 1800s, scuttlebutt (an alteration of scuttled butt) referred to a cask containing a ship’s daily supply of fresh water ([scuttle](https://bit.ly/4jeDqAb) means “to cut a hole through the bottom,” and [butt](https://bit.ly/44rYyyg) means “cask”); that name was later applied to a drinking fountain on a ship or at a naval [installation](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/installation). In time, the term for the water source was also applied to the gossip and rumors disseminated around it, and the latest chatter has been called “scuttlebutt” ever since.