butterfly

From Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English butorflēoge, buttorflēoge, buterflēoge (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 bēatan (“to beat”).[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʌtə(ɹ)flaɪ/
  • (US, Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈbʌɾɚflaɪ]

  • Audio (CA)

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  • (UK) IPA^(key): [ˈbʌtəflaɪ]

  • Audio (RP)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -aɪ

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.]
   • 1936, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “[Autobiographical Fragment]”, in Edward D[avid] McDonald, editor, Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence, London: William Heinemann Ltd., OCLC 906447154, page 836:

     It is true. I am like a butterfly, and I shall only live a little while.

2. A use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound to hold it closed.

   butterfly tape

3. (swimming) The butterfly stroke. [from 20th c.]
4. (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 […].

• lep

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.
   • 2006, Paul Garber, Newton's Force (page 256)

     After everyone had obeyed his commands, the lieutenant motioned for two medics that now appeared to enter the room and attend to Dr. Carter. They bandaged him up, butterflying some of the deeper gashes and gave him a couple of shots.

• caterpillar
• flutterby
• moth
• Appendix: Animals
• Appendix:English collective nouns

• flutterby

butterfly c (singular definite butterflyen, plural indefinite butterfly)

1. bowtie