How to scuttle a political career
Two of the most-looked-up words on Google SA this week were “roadkill” and “scuttlebutt”. We have politicians to thank for both linguistic investigations.
Starting with the less offensive word, “scuttlebutt” was used by former president Thabo Mbeki to describe the accusations of stirring dissension in the ANC that were aimed at him by EFF leader Julius Malema. Mbeki’s statement that he “rejects Malema’s scuttlebutt with the contempt it deserves” sent the public scuttling to information sites on the internet.
My cat Dave has the nickname “scuttlebutt” because she tends to scuttle around furtively with her butt close to the ground, but the word comes from different origins.
Fellow pedant Chrispin Phiri enlightened the Twitterverse with this: “Scuttlebutt: In slang usage means rumour or gossip, deriving from the nautical term for the cask used to serve water. The term corresponds to the colloquial concept of a water cooler in an office setting, which at times becomes the focus of congregation and casual discussion.”
The Online Etymology Dictionary tells us that the “scuttle” in scuttlebutt comes not from a scurrying movement but from the 17th-century verb meaning to sink a ship by cutting a hole in it. Scuttle evolved to mean the cutting of a hole in anything, particularly by sailors who cut holes in butts.
“Butt” in this sense is not the word we are mostly familiar with today a shortened form of “buttocks”. In the 15th century, a butt was a barrel full of wine or ale (usually not water).
So there we have it. Sailors told tall tales after scuttling a butt.
Let’s move on to “roadkill”, eloquently employed by DA leader John Steenhuisen to describe his ex-wife on a podcast.
The Online Etymology Dictionary and other mainstream dictionaries describe roadkill politely as “an animal killed by vehicular traffic”. If one ventures into the less politically correct sites dealing with language, other definitions are forthcoming.
The Urban Dictionary, which rates word explanations from readers according to their popularity, has this as the most viable definition of roadkill: “A squished cadaver that lies in the road, most likely crushed by a passing vehicle, now rotted and being devoured by other animals.”
I can’t imagine that Steenhuisen’s first wife would be delighted by being described in such a way.
But wait, there’s more. Steenhuisen’s cohosts cackled with glee when he called his ex-wife roadkill. One can almost hear the fist- and chest-bumps. Being hipper than he is, they might have thought he was employing the millennial slang version of roadkill, which the Urban Dictionary’s most popular entry defines as: “When travelling for business or pleasure and you manage to bang some ho you pick up.”
Most women will agree that being classed as the pick-up-and-drop sort of roadkill is even more insulting than being compared to a squashed rodent.
Much of the criticism levelled at Steenhuisen mentioned the fact that August is Women’s Month: how could he say such a thing at such a time? I find this strange. Do they mean that it’s OK to call women squished cadavers or “some ho” in any other month?
In his (sort-of) defence, Steenhuisen was probably referring to the first kind of roadkill, given that he followed his initial insulting comment with “a flat chicken”, again referring to his ex-wife.
There is a third type of roadkill, a slang interpretation that entered English in the 1990s, frequently used in the UK and the US to describe a weak political opponent who stands no chance whatsoever of winning whatever post they are running for.
The 2020 BBC political drama Roadkill gives much evidence of rivals left eviscerated on the gerrymandering highway.
Steenhuisen, after his misjudged postmarital jibes, might find himself a squished cadaver on the road to potential presidency, if women voters have any heft.
Incidentally, it is almost a shame when politicians who have worked hard to get to where they are give such damning ammunition to the opposition. It’s easy to blame gossipy rumours on scuttlebutt, but when there is recorded evidence of leaders saying something so offensive, bringing them down is like shooting fish in a barrel, or skewering flat chickens in the butt.