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Butterfly | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| jmlgws Senior Member Canada Joined 7102 days ago 102 posts - 104 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Spanish, Mandarin | Message 9 of 14 05 November 2006 at 6:47am | IP Logged | ||
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I was told that "butterfly" was at one time really "flutter-by" and the letters got transposed. I don't have a reference for this, but it does seem to make more sense, at least while "butterflies" really do fly, they have nothing to do with butter as far as I can tell.
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| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 10 of 14 05 November 2006 at 7:21am | IP Logged | ||
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I think that's just a popular folk etymology. According to the online Etymology Dictionary, it comes from Old English buttorfleoge — fleoge meaning a flying insect. It's theorized that the word might be related either to the old myth that butterflies ate butter, or that some have light yellow wings, or that they leave butter-coloured excrement.
Regarding that last one, apparently old Dutch had the word boterschijte. It's easy to work out what that means in English. :) Edited by Captain Haddock on 05 November 2006 at 7:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Til Diglot Newbie Turkey Joined 6583 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Turkish*, Azerbaijani | Message 11 of 14 16 November 2006 at 8:01am | IP Logged | ||
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In Türkish 'Kelebek' come old Türkish 'Yepelek' Yepelek means; elegant, slender.
Alijsh writed, in Persian 'Parvâna' means butterfly, Parvâna entered Türkish, in Türkish 'Pervane' means ; 'propeller' . 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 14 16 November 2006 at 8:27am | IP Logged | ||
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You can find a bit of multilingual butterfly etymology here
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| Til Diglot Newbie Turkey Joined 6583 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Turkish*, Azerbaijani | Message 13 of 14 16 November 2006 at 8:30am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Iversen.
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| Alijsh Tetraglot Senior Member Iran jahanshiri.ir/ Joined 6622 days ago 149 posts - 167 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Persian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: German, Italian | Message 14 of 14 17 November 2006 at 12:27am | IP Logged | ||
In Persian it has also this usage: propeller (a device which causes a ship or aircraft to move, consisting of two or more blades which turn round at high speed), fan In a northern dialect of Persian we have papeli for butterfly, which is very close to French papillon, and Italian farfalla. *** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly#Etymology says, "The Old English word for butterfly was buttorfleoge apparently because butterflies were thought to steal milk. A similar word occurs in Dutch and German originating from the same belief." Edited by Alijsh on 17 November 2006 at 5:47am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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