butterfly

[poppyk]

can anyone tell me the meaning of the word butterfly

[Thunderbird+]

Some might tell you its a corruption of the word 'flutter-by'
I think its more probable that the word is derived from a yellow winged butterfly ie the 'Brimstone'

[Quizmonster]

It's a lovely story that claims the word �butterfly' comes from the fact that one may be seen to �flutter by'. ..ie that it is just a metathesis or letter-swop. Sadly that's all it is...a story. Even in Old English days, the words �butter' and �fly' were joined to create �butorfleoge' as the creature's name. There may be a connection with a Dutch dialect word for butterfly...�boterschijte', which suggests a relationship between butter and butterfly excrement, both being yellow. Unfortunately - though probably more accurate - that's not quite such a pretty picture as flutter-by!
Another theory is that �butor' was also the Old English name for the finest of pasture-land. Obviously, many butterflies would be attracted to such grass and the cattle on it would produce the finest of butter...hence the name of the dairy product.
A strange thing is the fact that the word �butterfly' itself seems to come from different roots in each of the other four major European languages...French = papillon, Italian = farfalla, Spanish = mariposa and German = Schmetterling.

[Toureman]

Look here.........

http://www.aworldforbutterflies.com/etymology. htm

this could be where quizmonster got his answer from.

[Quizmonster]

Wrong again, Toureman. I've never before seen your link-site. I get my etymological information basically from the horse's mouth...The Oxford English Dictionary. However, I'm equally happy to use other sources such as Michael Quinion's World Wide Words website. The thing is, I then take the ideas I've gained from many sources and string them together in my own particular way.

I'm sure you are aware that just about everything that just about everyone knows about just about anything got into their heads because somebody else put the information there! I refer, of course, to parents, teachers, books, newspapers, magazines, television, radio and all the other knowledge resources we humans use.

If I point out that 4 times 3 divided by 2 is 6, am I supposed to add that I know that only because Miss Reid taught me the times-tables etc in Primary 2 back in 1943?