‘Butt Load’ Is A Real Unit Of Measurment. Seriously

A Ton of, A bucket load of, Oodles of, A Stack, A bunch and a Shit load. Whenever you are describing something that consists of a large quantity there are multiple ways it can be said. All of these are not units of measurement but did you know that the phrase “Buttload” is actually a unit of measurement?

Seriously…

Okay, technically the measurement isn’t actually a buttload. It is the “butt” that carries historical measuring significance.  From the Italian word botte, the word for cask or barrel, the word butt came into being as a unit to measure wine and other alcoholic beverages. If you come into possession of a butt of wine, you’re the proud owner of a half tun (a large cask with the volume of four standard wine barrels) or roughly 475-480 litres of wine. Adjusted into US gallons, the average butt of wine then is 126 gallons–with the cask and all, a butt of wine weighs around 1200 pounds.

The use of butt as a unit to measure wine has fallen out of favour as have the butt-size casks used to measure and transport the beverage. But its legacy carries on in the form of the word buttload to informally, and perhaps immaturely, denote a sizable amount of something.