Etymology

scuttlebutt

scut·tle·butt
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Today it means: Originally (now chiefly historical), a cask with a hole cut into its top, used to provide drinking water on board a ship; now (by extension, informal), a drinking fountain on a modern ship. Full definition →

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The story

The noun is derived from scuttle (“to cut a hole through (something)”) + butt (“wooden cask”). Noun sense 2 (“gossip, idle chatter; rumour”) refers to the fact that sailors would gather around the scuttlebutt to drink and exchange gossip; compare furphy and water cooler. The verb is derived from the noun.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.