The story
- Latin · derived frompapilio“butterfly”
- Old French · derived fromdisparpelier
- English todaydisparple
From Old French disparpelier, disparpillier et al., apparently from a late prefixed form of Latin papilio (“butterfly”).
Words from the same roots
Latinpapilio all →
papillonPeeblespapiliopapilionaceous
First known use, by meaning
- 14th–17th c. To scatter, disperse.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.