Etymology

butterfly

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Today it means: A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring. Full definition →

First used 11th c.Middle English boterflye ← Old English buterflēoge ← Proto-West Germanic *fleugā
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷṓws
  2. Proto-Hellenic*gʷous
  3. Ancient Greekβοῦς (boûs)
  4. Proto-Indo-European*tewh₂-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*tuh₂rós
  6. Proto-Hellenic*tūrós
  7. Ancient Greekτυρός (turós)
  8. Ancient Greekβούτῡρον (boútūron)
  9. Latinbūtȳrum
  10. Proto-West Germanic*buterā
  11. Old Englishbutere
  12. Proto-Indo-European*plew-
  13. Proto-Indo-European*plewk-
  14. Proto-Indo-European*pléwketi
  15. Proto-Germanic*fleuganądeverb.
  16. Proto-Germanic*fleugǭ
  17. Proto-West Germanic*fleugā
  18. Old Englishflēoge
  19. Old Englishbuterflēoge
  20. Middle Englishboterflye
  21. English todaybutterfly

From Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English buterflēoge, equivalent to butter + fly. Cognate with Dutch botervlieg, German Butterfliege (“butterfly”). The name may have originally been applied to butterflies of a yellowish color, 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-excretor”)). 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 Old English butor- (“beater”), a mutation of bēatan (“to beat”), but this would not explain the cognates in other languages or the other names formed with milk products. Superseded non-native Middle English papilion (“butterfly”) borrowed from Old French papillon (“butterfly”). Contrary to popularised belief, the form "butterfly" was not derived from an earlier flutterby.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 11th c. A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
  • from 11th c. The imago (final form) of such an insect, consisting usually of a long body with large flat wings, as opposed to earlier instars such as caterpillar or pupa.
  • from 20th c. The butterfly stroke.
  • from 17th c. Someone seen as being unserious and (originally) dressed gaudily; someone flighty and unreliable.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.