Clipping of buttered sandwich or bun + -y. Compare Saterland Frisian Buutje (“buttered bread (sandwich)”).
Meanings
(Ireland, New-Zealand, Northern-England, UK) A sandwich, usually with a hot or cold savoury filling buttered in a barmcake. The most common are chips, bacon, sausage and egg.
A miner who works under contract, receiving a fixed amount per ton of coal or ore.
But Alfred Charlesworth did not forgive the butty these public-house sayings. Consequently, although Morel was a good miner, sometimes earning as much as five pounds a week when he married, [...] 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 1, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
(dated) A miner's assistant or apprentice.
(UK, colloquial) A workmate.
Near-synonyms: coworker, buddy
(UK, archaic, dialectal, qualifier:among boys) A drudge; a cat's paw; someone who does the hard work; someone who is being taken advantage of by someone else.
Ah didn't play butty, ah promise yer. Yo all on yer mek the poor lad yer butty.
(Shropshire, archaic) One of a pair of shoes or gloves.
I've fund one shoe, but canna see the butty no-weer.