Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(mainly UK northern) a friend, a ‘mate’, thus as term of address.

[1808		J. Nichols ‘Hist. Leicstershire’ in British Critic & Qly Rev. Apr. 389: Butty, a fellow servant, or labourer; thus it is said, ‘One butty's wi’ t’other’].
1837		Comic Almanack Mar. 84: It wood sirprize my old butty James to ear me nocking the ard words about.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 297: ‘Butty,’ says I, ‘who are those chaps round here on the lay?’.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 148/2: Joe tried hard to get excused, saying his ‘butties’ were outside waiting for him.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 101: William Carrol was his partner, or ‘butty,’ in the ‘lollipop’ business.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 337: Here, Mr. Bullivant, this be your new ‘buttie,’ I ’spect.
1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 34: Butty, a confederate.
1894		Leeds Times 3 Feb. 6/4: No, she ain’t a dolly-mop; you’re clean off the scent there, buttie [...] she’s proper.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 21 Apr. 3/3: The Solidarity Party [...] wanted the line constructed on the ‘butty-gang’ system.
1898		Regiment 18 June 183/3: Of course, he had to pay visits to his old ‘butties’ and the local pubs.
1906		C. M’Govern Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds 64: The fun he and his butty had last Fourth of July in Arizona with some Greaser feller who wouldn’t take off his ‘dip’ when he passed the Stars and Stripes.
c.1914		C. Mac Garvey Green Line and the Little Yellow Road in Mac Thomáis (1982) 158: The top-line double turn, Mick Maguire and Jamesy Byrne, / Were buttys since the days they mitched from school.
1916		Mt Carmel Item (PA) 6 Oct. 1/2: His ‘butty’ placed a stick of dynamite [...] on a rock.
1923		P. MacGill Moleskin Joe 133: The polisman didn’t know that he was my butty.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 124: The ex-prizefighter who was my buttie from Northampton to London.
1939		‘Flann O’Brien’ At Swim-Two-Birds 163: This is my friend and butty, Mr. Shorty Andrews.
1941		E. Knight Lassie Come-Home 60: In that seventeen years, Joe, butties I’ve had by the dozen, working alongside of me.
1950		K. Amis letter 27 Aug. in Leader (2000) 245: Look here, dear old butty, just you keep that 23 Sept.
1966		P. Boyle At Night All Cats Are Grey 62: It’s a wonder you weren’t at the Doctor’s funeral. The pair of you were great butties.
1977		(con. 1940s) O. Manning Danger Tree 148: Throwing a rock to his butty, he shouted, ‘Ere y’are, gran, you can eat ’em with no teeth’.
1986		(con. 1930s) P. O’Farrell Tell me, Sean O’Farrell 60: There was another butty (friend) of yours.
1999		(con. 1916) R. Doyle A Star Called Henry (2000) 146: Here’s all your butties now, she said.
2001		N. Griffiths Sheepshagger 140: So tell us then, butt; is that true? Yewer virgin string still intact, is it?