Glossary entry
Button man
BUH-tun man
Definition
BUH-tun man
A soldier at the bottom of a family's rank structure, and by implication one available for violent work when a capo orders it.
“Maranzano kept two button men in the outer office, which did not help him on the day it mattered.”
The origin of the phrase is uncertain. The likeliest explanation is that a button is a small, identical, replaceable thing, and that this is roughly how the organisation regarded the men at that level.
A button man is always a made man; the terms describe the same rung from different angles. One is about status, the other about function.