buttinsky

English

WOTD – 1 April 2023

Alternative forms

buttinski, butterinsky

Etymology

Derived from the phrasal verb butt in (“to intrude uninvited into a conversation or situation; to interject”) +‎ -sky (a variant of -ski (a suffix used to evoke Russian, Polish, or broader Slavic associations)). The formation humorously imitates Russian surnames and was originally—and has frequently continued to be—used as a surname in fiction.^[1]^[2]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bʌˈtɪnski/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /bʌˈtɪnski/, [-ˈɾɪn-]
Hyphenation: butt‧in‧sky

Noun

buttinsky (plural buttinskys or buttinskies) (originally US, slang)

(derogatory, somewhat vulgar) An individual who habitually intervenes in the affairs or conversations of others without invitation or justification; a meddlesome person; a busybody. [from early 20th c.]
Synonyms: butterinsky, kibitzer, meddler, nosey parker (Britain), stickybeak (Australia, New Zealand, informal), yenta (woman, chiefly in Jewish contexts)

I wish I had never met that nosy buttinsky!
- 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XX, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, section I, page 252:
  Well, all right then! If you think I'm a buttinsky, then I'll just butt in!
- 1933, Dorothy L[eigh] Sayers, “Murder Must Advertise. Chapter 4: Remarkable Acrobatics of a Harlequin.”, in The Five Red Herrings (Suspicious Characters): And Murder Must Advertise, Garden City, N.Y.: Nelson Doubleday, →OCLC, page 357:
  "Shut up, Garrett. I never," said Mr. Tallboy, extricating himself from Garrett's grasp and giving him a playful punch in the wind, "in my life, met with such a bunch of buttinskis as you are in this department. Nothing is sacred to you, not even a man's business correspondence."
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter V, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC, page 50:
  It is never pleasant for a man of sensibility to find himself regarded as a buttinski and a trailing arbutus, and it was thus, I could see at a g., that Wilbert Cream was pencilling me in.
(telecommunications) A robust portable one-piece telephone instrument with clips, used by technicians and lines staff for testing telephone circuits or making a temporary connection to a telephone line.
Synonym: butt set

Translations

An individual who habitually intervenes in the affairs or conversations of others — see busybody

telephone instrument

Finnish: asentajapuhelin
Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

References

^ “buttinsky, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021.
^ “buttinsky”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.