A chum of mine in the Mother Country wrote to me about a problem with rust on the scuttle of his classic car. I thought a scuttle was a metal bucket in which one carried coal. I think it is also a hatch in the deck of a ship. Lord knows where this fellow's rust might be located. Any help?
'Ello, my friend. Well, I've spent an interesting little while searching, and didn't come up with much. I learned via Google that a scuttle: a.) has a frame and b.) sits on the chassis. Woo. I did find this--perhaps you can make more sense of it than I could:
http://www.daxrush.co.uk/part5.htmMight try diy parts shopping (diy so as to help ensure that you're on to a UK site); you might get lucky and get a picture.
Dear Father Steve: I found a list translating British terms to American that say British "scuttle" is A,erican "cowl".
I am not sure what "cowl" is.
http://www.team.net/sol/solterms.html
The 'cowl' is the body/frame around an automobiles' 'firewall', although I believe, back in Model "T" times, assembled together they were collectively called the cowl.
Make me wonder what a "scuttle butt" really is...
Scuttle, as a verb, also means to deliberately sink a ship or boat, to keep out of the hands of the enemy or to form a reef for instance:
from Merriam-Webster's
Main Entry: 3scuttle
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): scut·tled; scut·tling /'sk&t-li[ng], 'sk&-t&l-i[ng]/
Date: 1642
1 : to cut a hole through the bottom, deck, or side of (a ship); specifically : to sink or attempt to sink by making holes through the bottom
2 : DESTROY, WRECK; also : SCRAP 2
Make me wonder what a "scuttle butt" really is...
The butt is basically a barrel - often filled with water and secured to a mast by ropes. OED says a scuttle is "a platform at the head of a lower mast, a top."
A couple of sailors could meet at the water butt, ostensibly to drink, and exchange or pass along gossip or conversations they overheard between officers without arousing the officers' suspicions - hence "scuttle butt" meaning unsubstantiated gossip.
OED says the scuttle - in cars - is the area between the windscreen and the bonnet. Any help?
According to Dave Wilton (
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordors.htm#scuttlebutt) the
butt was the barrel that held the water and the
scuttle was from the hole cut in the barrel to get the water out through.