different between butterfly vs butter

English

Etymology

From Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English butorfl?oge, buttorfl?oge, buterfl?oge (from butere (“butter”)), equivalent to butter +? fly. Cognate with Dutch botervlieg, German Butterfliege (“butterfly”). The name may have originally been applied to butterflies of a yellowish color, and/or reflected a belief that butterflies ate milk and butter (compare German Molkendieb (“butterfly”, literally “whey thief”) and Low German Botterlicker (“butterfly”, literally “butter-licker”)), or that they excreted a butter-like substance (compare Dutch boterschijte (“butterfly”, literally “butter-shitter”)). Compare also German Schmetterling from Schmetten (“cream”), German Low German Bottervögel (“butterfly”, literally “butter-fowl”). More at butter, fly.

An alternate theory suggests that the first element may have originally been butor- (“beater”), a mutation of b?atan (“to beat”).

Superseded non-native Middle English papilion (“butterfly”) borrowed from Old French papillon (“butterfly”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?t?(?)fla?/
  • (US, Canada) IPA^(key): [?b???fla?]
  • (UK) IPA^(key): [?b?t?fla?]
• Rhymes: -a?

Noun

butterfly (plural butterflies)

2. A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring. [from 11th c.]
3. A use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound to hold it closed.

5. (swimming) The butterfly stroke. [from 20th c.]
6. (in the plural) A sensation of excited anxiety felt in the stomach.

   I get terrible butterflies before an exam.

7. (now rare) Someone seen as being unserious and (originally) dressed gaudily; someone flighty and unreliable. [from 17th c.]
   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 15:

     He was affable; therefore he was frivolous. The women liked him; therefore he was a butterfly.

Synonyms

• lep

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

butterfly (third-person singular simple present butterflies, present participle butterflying, simple past and past participle butterflied)

1. (transitive) To cut (food) almost entirely in half and spread the halves apart, in a shape suggesting the wings of a butterfly.

   butterflied shrimp

   Butterfly the chicken before you grill it.

2. (transitive) To cut strips of surgical tape or plasters into thin strips, and place across (a gaping wound) to close it.

See also

• caterpillar
• flutterby
• moth
• Appendix: Animals
• Appendix:English collective nouns

References

Anagrams

• flutterby

Danish

Noun

butterfly c (singular definite butterflyen, plural indefinite butterfly)

1. bowtie

Inflection

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: b??t?r, IPA^(key): /?b?t??/
  • • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?t?/, [?b?t??]
    • (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?t?/, [?b???]
    • (Scotland, Wales) IPA^(key): /?b?t?/, [?b???], /?b?t?/
  • Rhymes: -?t?(?)
• (Northern England, Midlands) IPA^(key): /?b?t?/
  • Rhymes: -?t?(?)
• Hyphenation: but?ter

Etymology 1

From Middle English buter, butter, from Old English butere, from Proto-West Germanic *buter?, from Latin b?t?rum, from Ancient Greek ???????? (boút?ron, “cow cheese”), compound of ???? (boûs, “ox, cow”) and ????? (t?rós, “cheese”).

Noun

butter (usually uncountable, plural butters)

1. A soft, fatty foodstuff made by churning the cream of milk (generally cow's milk).
2. Any of various foodstuffs made from other foods or oils, similar in consistency to, eaten like or intended as a substitute for butter (preceded by the name of the food used to make it).

3. (obsolete, chemistry) Any specific soft substance.

4. (aviation, slang) A smooth plane landing.

Derived terms

Related terms

• butterfly
• butter-ham

Translations

Verb

butter (third-person singular simple present butters, present participle buttering, simple past and past participle buttered)

1. (transitive) To spread butter on.

2. To move one's weight backwards or forwards onto the tips or tails of one's skis or snowboard so only the tip or tail is in contact with the snow.
3. (slang, obsolete, transitive) To increase (stakes) at every throw of dice, or every game.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• butyraceous
• ghee

Etymology 2

butt +? -er

Noun

butter (plural butters)

1. Someone who butts, or who butts in.
   • 2005, David E. Fastovsky, David B. Weishampel, The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs (page 156)

     […] these animals lacked self-correcting mechanisms of the kind seen in modern head-butters such as goats and big-horn sheep that would have kept the tremendous forces aligned with the rest of the skeleton.

Etymology 3

Derived from the aviation slang term

Adjective

butter (comparative more butter, superlative most butter)

1. Very smooth, very soft

   That landing was total butter!

French

Etymology

From butte.

Verb

butter

1. to heap

Conjugation

Further reading

• “butter” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Verb

butter

1. inflection of buttern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative

Middle English

Noun

butter

1. Alternative form of buter

Swedish

Adjective

butter (comparative buttrare, superlative buttrast)

1. grumpy

Declension

Anagrams

• brutet, buttre

West Flemish

Noun

butter ?

1. Alternative form of beuter