蝴蝶

Japanese

Kanji in this term
蝴	蝶

Noun

蝴蝶 (hiragana こちょう, romaji kochō)

1. butterfly

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Mandarin

simpl. and trad.
蝴蝶

Etymology

From Middle Chinese *ɣo dep (first syllable unstressed), from Old Chinese, derived from a proto-form of *kʰleːp ~ *ɦleːp, a prefixed form of the root *lep ("wide, flat", represented by the phonetic element 枼).

Variants: 蝶 (*l̥eːp), 胡蝶, 蛺蝶 (*kep l’ep), 蛺蜨 (*kep sep), representing different developments from the proto-form, including disyllabification, fricativisation of the voiceless initial, etc.

Cognates from the same word family:

• 葉 (*lep, "leaf")
• 鰈 (*l’eːp, "flatfish, plaice")
• 楪 > 碟 (*l’eːp, "plate")
• 牒 (*l’eːp, "official document < plank").

This word in Chinese is related to Proto-Tibeto-Burman *lep ("butterfly"), the source of

• Tibetan ཕྱེ་མ་ལེབ (phye ma leb, “butterfly”) and
• Burmese လိပ်ပြာ (lippra, “butterfly”).

Outside Sino-Tibetan, compare Middle Korean

• 나븨 (napuy, “butterfly”) (Modern 나비 (nabi))
• 닢 (nip, “leaf”) (Modern 잎 (ip))
• 넙치 (neopchi, “flatfish”),

similarly derived from a similar-shaped adjective root 넙다 (nep-, “to be wide, flat”) (Modern 넓다 (neol(p)-)).

Pronunciation

• IPA: [ xu˧˥tiɛ˧˥ ]

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

蝴蝶 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin húdié)

1. (Intermediate Mandarin) butterfly

See also

• 蛾 (é)
• trad. 毛毛蟲, simpl. 毛毛虫 (máomáochóng)

References

• 2000, Jingmin (ed.) Shao, HSK Dictionary (HSK汉语水平考试词典) (in Mandarin/English), Shanghai: Huadong Teachers College Publishers, ISBN 7561720785:

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Min Nan

simpl. and trad.
蝴蝶

Pronunciation

• (Quanzhou) IPA: [ hɔ˨˩tiap˥˥ ] or IPA: [ ɔ˨˩tiap˥˥ ]
• (Zhangzhou:) IPA: [ hɔ˧˧tiap˥˥ ] or IPA: [ ɔ˧˧tiap˥˥ ]

Noun

蝴蝶 (traditional and simplified, POJ hô·-tia̍p or ô·-tia̍p)

1. butterfly

Synonyms

• 蝶仔 (ia̍h-á) butterfly; moth