★ I wish that ‘Butt-Load’ was a real metric. Right now the term ‘butt-load’ is very relative and could possibly cause some confusion in certain situations. For example, if I were to bring a 5 lbs bag of oysters to a BBQ with 6 people, that’s a butt-load of oysters. But a 5 lbs bag of oysters at a 20 person BBQ is kinda half-ass’d. If someone asks me to buy oysters, I want to be able to ask ‘one, or two butt-loads?’.

I’ve found references to the term ‘butt-load’ as meaning ‘about six seams’ which amounts to roughly 450 gallons; I also found a reference to ‘butt-load’ as a sailing term meaning ‘a little bit larger than a 50 gallon barrel.’

The Urbandictionary.com defines a ‘butt load’ as a term used to define a finite sum of something. Generally accepted as an amount somewhere between a lot and a shit-ton. Often noted when speaking in hyperboly and used for extreme emphasis or exaggeration.

I think this is all much to convoluted for a term as commonly used as ‘butt-load’ is. All it would take is for a consortium or a group with a decent amount of authority to set a final, measurable, value for ‘butt-load’. In todays ‘web 2.0’ world, this may be a problem best suited for wikipedia. Wikipedia could easily crowd source a standard metric that could be generally accepted.