different between butterfly vs cicada

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Superseded non-native Middle English papilion (“butterfly”) borrowed from Old French papillon (“butterfly”).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

Alternative forms

• cicad

Etymology

Wikispecies

Borrowed from Latin cicada, ultimately onomatopoeic. Doublet of cicala.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /s??ke?.d?/, /s??k??.d?/, [s??k?e??.d?], [s??k???.d?]
• (US) IPA^(key): /s??ke?.d?/, /s??k?.d?/, [s???k?e??.??], [s???k??.??]
• Rhymes: -e?d?, -??d?

Noun

cicada (plural cicadas or cicadae)

1. Any of several insects in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with small eyes wide apart on the head and transparent well-veined wings.
   1. The periodical cicada.

Synonyms

• cicala

Hyponyms

• (periodical cicada): seventeen-year locust, decim periodical cicada

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• cricket
• grasshopper
• locust

Latin

Etymology

Unknown. Probably a loan-word from a lost Mediterranean substrate language, ultimately onomatopoeic. Compare also Sanskrit ??????? (ci?cira, “cicada”).

(Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

• cic?da: (Classical) IPA^(key): /ki?ka?.da/, [k??kä?d?ä]
• cic?da: (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /t??i?ka.da/, [t??i?k??d??]

Noun

cic?da f (genitive cic?dae); first declension

1. cicada, tree-cricket
2. vocative singular of cic?da

Declension

First-declension noun.

Descendants

Noun

cic?d?

1. ablative singular of cic?da

References

• cicada in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cicada in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cicada in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• cicada in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• cicada in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Romanian

Noun

cicada

1. definite nominative singular of cicad?
2. definite accusative singular of cicad?