Butt (name)
Butt is a German and an English surname whose origins lie in the South West peninsula region of England.
Etymology
The surname Butt or Butts is mistakenly said to be derived from the French word "but" which is a verb meaning "aim" or "target". The English name is derived from the Middle English word "but", a noun meaning a mark for archery, a target or goal. The name may derive from butt, a strip of ploughland shorter than the average length of one furlong.
History
Anglo-Norman names are characterised by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Butt, But, Butte and others.
Butt
Butt may refer to:
See also
English wine cask units
Capacities of wine casks were formerly measured and standardised according to a specific system of English units. The various units were historically defined in terms of the wine gallon so varied according to the definition of the gallon until the adoption of the Queen Anne wine gallon in 1707. In the United Kingdom and its colonies the units were redefined with the introduction of the imperial system whilst the Queen Anne wine gallon was adopted as the standard US liquid gallon. The major wine producing countries use barrels extensively and have developed standards at variance with the traditional English volumes (e.g. a hogshead of 300 L or 66 imp gal or 79 US gal, a barrique of 220 L or 48 imp gal or 58 US gal (Bordeaux), 225 L or 49 imp gal or 59 US gal (Australia) of 230 L or 51 imp gal or 61 US gal (Burgundy) and a puncheon of 465 L or 102 imp gal or 123 US gal) are commonly used in the wine and wine cooperage industries.
Units
The tun (Old English: tunne, Latin: tunellus, Middle Latin: tunna) is an English unit of liquid volume (not weight), used for measuring wine, oil or honey. Typically a large vat or vessel, most often holding 252 wine gallons, but occasionally other sizes (e.g. 256, 240 and 208 gallons) were also used.
Butt (unit)
A butt is a unit of volume used for dry measure in the UK.
Definition
108 Imperial gallons.
126 gallons in the United States
Conversion
1 butt ≡ 108 Imperial gallons
1 butt ≡ 0.490977936 m3
References
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