Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A Scotch form of
bottle . - To act as butler.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To serve as or perform the duties of a
butler .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We have to keep quiet, be respectful and buttle them.
'Free' healthcare? That has to be the greatest oxymoron of our age | AL Kennedy 2011
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Kitteh plans revenge on hoomans buyz hiding skwirty buttle in bed
So… - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008
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He liked the food, he liked seeing his father buttle, and he liked these amazing freaks who were, it appeared, fellow-inmates with him of this highly desirable residence.
Piccadilly Jim 1928
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It is, if I may say so, more than a pleasure — it is an education, to valet and buttle your lordship.
Whose Body? Dorothy Leigh 1923
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It is, if I may say so, more than a pleasure — it is an education, to valet and buttle your lordship.
Whose Body Sayers, Dorothy L. 1923
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The first two pretty much sum up Winner's USP - he doesn't buttle these days even if you've won a clutch of Oscars - the very epitome of a wise fool, who knows when to call the shots and when to judiciously ramp up the campery.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011
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So, you're glamping out on Mars, and of course you need someone to buttle you as you relax within your well appointed, synthetic diamond-reinforced space tent; who better than a
Engadget 2010
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- So, you're glamping out on Mars, and of course you need someone to buttle you as you relax within your well appointed, synthetic diamond-reinforced space tent; who better than a robotic butler?
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At the other end of the spectrum from those posts is today's buttle from
Express Milwaukee 2010
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This brings us around to Anderson who, despite his smug inflections, knows to buttle in this scenario rather than dominate, which is to his credit.
arby commented on the word buttle
I think Wodehouse invented this - backformation from butler.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word buttle
According to the pompous Kenneth G. Wilson (The Columbia Guide to Standard American English), buttle (v.) "is a back-formation from butler (past tense and past participle are buttled) describing what this functionary does: at best it is Conversational and Informal; at worst it is slang."
I beg to differ, sir - it is hilarious and adorable.
July 8, 2008
asativum commented on the word buttle
However else does one describe what a butler does?
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word buttle
I suppose it should be described as "to serve" or something horribly boring like that.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word buttle
Which reminds me of the classic short story/Twilight Zone ep, "To Serve Man" - in case you don't know it, the entire premise of the episode is based on a pun on the title.
July 9, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word buttle
The OED has quotations back to 1867 for the sense "serve drinks"; in the more general sense "act as butler" it quotes Mrs Humphrey Ward from 1918 (The under~housemaid ‘buttles’ for him like a lamb.), and in the same year Wodehouse for the gerundial noun (How on earth did you come to be here? What's the idea? Why the buttling?).
July 14, 2008