dial. [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. Lett. 17 April. 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 £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, -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.
