butterfly

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WOTD - 23 January 2006    
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[edit] English

A butterfly

[edit] Etymology

Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English butorflēoge, buttorflēoge, buterflēoge, perhaps a compound of butor- 'beater', mutation of bēatan 'to beat', and flēoge 'fly'.[1] More at beat and fly.

Alternate etymology connects the first element to butere (“butter”), as the name may have originally been applied solely to butterflies of a yellowish or butter-coloured blee. This may have merged later with the belief that butterflies ate milk and butter (compare Middle High German molkendiep (“butterfly”, literally “milk-thief”); Modern German Molkendieb and Low German Botterlicker (“butterfly”, literally “butter-licker”)), or that they excreted a butter-like substance (compare Middle Dutch boterschijte (“butterfly ”, literally “butter-shitter”)). Compare also Middle Dutch botervliege (“butterfly”) (Dutch botervlieg), German Butterfliege (“butterfly”). More at butter, fly.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

butterfly (plural butterflies)

  1. A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring. [from 11th c.]
  2. (now rare) Someone seen as being unserious and (originally) dressed gaudily; someone flighty and unreliable. [from 17th c.]
    • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:
      The day came indeed when her breathless auditors learnt from her in bewilderment that what ailed him was that he was, alas, simply not serious. Maisie wept on Mrs. Wix's bosom after hearing that Sir Claude was a butterfly [...].
  3. The butterfly stroke. [from 20th c.]
  4. A use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound to hold it closed.
    butterfly tape

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Translations

insect
swimming stroke
butterfly tape
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
  • Darling: bilyululijga
  • Gafat, Kistane, Inor, Mesmes, Sebat Bet Gurage, Argobba, Harari, Wolane, Silt'e, Zay: billambilloot
  • Indonesian, Minangkabau, Mentawai: angiak
  • Iyojwa'ja Chorote, Iyo'wujwa Chorote, Maca, Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay, Wichí Lhamtés Nocten, Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz: choqoq
  • Koongo: lumbebeba
  • Laari: lumbebeba
  • Man Cao Lan
  • San Salvador Kongo: lumbebeba

[edit] Verb

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

  1. To cut almost entirely in half and spread the halves apart, in a shape suggesting the wings of a butterfly.
    butterflied shrimp
  2. To cut strips of surgical tape or plasters into thin strips, and place across a gaping wound to close it.

[edit] See also

[edit] Anagrams

[edit] References

  1. ^ Donald A. Ringe, A Linguistic History of English: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (Oxford: Oxford, 2003), 232.
Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=butterfly&oldid=16206518"
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