different between penguin vs butterfly

English

Alternative forms

• pinguin (obsolete)

Etymology

Unknown; first attested in the 16th century in reference to the auk of the Northern hemisphere; the word was later applied to the superficially similar birds of the Southern hemisphere (as was woggin). Possibly from Welsh pen (“head”) and gwyn (“white”), or from Latin pinguis (“fat”). See citations and the Wikipedia page.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p???w?n/
• (pin–pen merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /?p???w?n/

Noun

penguin (plural penguins)

1. Any of several flightless sea birds, of order Sphenisciformes, found in the Southern Hemisphere, marked by their usual upright stance, walking on short legs, and (generally) their stark black and white plumage. [from 16th c.]
   • 1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, I:

     Here are also birds cal'd Pen-gwins (white-head in Welch) like Pigmies walking upright, their finns or wings hanging very orderly downe like sleeves […]

2. (obsolete or historical) An auk (sometimes especially a great auk), a bird of the Northern Hemisphere.
   • 1772 March, Account of the Settlement of the Malouines, in The Gentleman's and London Magazine, page 166:

     *This last species of penguin, or auk, seems to be the same with the alca cirrhata of Dr. Pallis, Spicileg. Zool. Fasc. v. p. 7. tab. i. & v. fig. 1–3. F.

   • 1885, Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York:

     More than a hundred years ago, for example, was seen the last of the great wingless penguins or auks, which early writers quaintly called " wobble-birds."

3. (slang) A nun (association through appearance, because of the often black-and-white habit).
4. (juggling) A type of catch where the palm of the hand is facing towards the leg with the arm stretched downward, resembling the flipper of a penguin.
5. A spiny bromeliad with egg-shaped fleshy fruit, Bromelia pinguin.
   • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 4, p. 82,^[1]

     These productive patches, and the houses, were each surrounded by a fence, made of a prickly shrub, called the Pinguin, which propagates itself with great rapidity.

Related terms

Descendants

Translations

References

Further reading

• Penguin in the 1921 edition of Collier's Encyclopedia.

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