Meaning
A crude, ill-mannered, uncultured person — a boor who behaves in a low, common, and vulgar way. The very opposite of someone with 'broughtupsy' (good home training), a butu lacks manners, refinement, and grace, and the word can also work as an adjective for coarse, boorish behaviour. It is a sharp put-down, looking down on the rough and the ill-bred, and it belongs to the Jamaican vocabulary of manners and class, where 'broughtupsy' is prized and its absence, the butu's way, is despised.
Examples
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Nuh act like a butu at di dinner.
Don't act like a boor at the dinner.
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Him have money but him still a butu.
He has money but he's still crude and ill-mannered.
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Dat a pure butu behaviour.
That's pure uncouth behaviour.
Origin
Believed to come from a West African language, one of several Jamaican words for coarseness and lack of manners.
How it’s used
A cutting insult about manners and class, quite apart from wealth — one can be rich and still a 'butu'.