What are the origins of "scuttlebutt?"

[fieldingyost]

Hello all:

In our vernacular, scuttlebutt means gossip, but it also means the container which holds the day’s water supply on a ship. Does anyone know what, if any, connection there is between the slang meaning and its predecessor?

I would definitely appreciate any information! Thank you!

[Raguleader]

I would imagine that it is similar to “Watercooler conversation”, people chatting during an idle moment while getting water.

[Khadaji]

The Word Detective says:

As a synonym for “the word going around” or “gossip,” “scuttlebutt” dates back to the days of sailing ships, when men were men and ships lacked plumbing. If a sailor wanted a drink of fresh water to quench his thirst between floggings, he made his way to the “scuttlebutt,” the tall ships’ equivalent of today’s water cooler. The “scuttlebutt” was actually nothing but a small wooden keg with a hold cut in its side, used to hold the crew’s daily ration of drinking water. The name “scuttlebutt” is a logical combination of “scuttle,” meaning to cut a hole something, and “butt,” meaning a small cask or keg (from the Latin “butta,” cask or wine-skin). Incidentally, casks were not the only things “scuttled” at sea. To “scuttle” a ship means to deliberately sink her, usually by cutting a hole in the side below the water line.

Much like water coolers in today’s offices, the “scuttlebutt” aboard ship served as an impromptu social center and a place to trade the latest news, and in the 19th century “scuttlebutt” came to be used as slang for “rumors or gossip.”