Noun: but
Gender: m
Hyphenation:
| Singular m | but |
| Plural m | buts |
Sample Sentences
Nouns inflected like but
trichogramme,
wintergreen,
urinoir,
contrespionnage,
aréomètre,
palefroi,
whiskey,
whippin,
tee-shirt,
hypocycloïde,
surrisque,
lanternon,
dissentiment,
phonogramme,
phonographe,
trioxygène,
fétichisme,
synode,
synthé,
modérantisme, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. From Middle French but (“mark, goal”), from Old French but (“aim, goal, end, target”), from Old French butte (“mound, knoll, target”), from Frankish *but (“stump, log”), or from Old Norse bútr (“log, stump, butt”); both from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“end, piece”).
2. Cognate with Old English butt (“tree stump”); see butt. The semantic development from "mound" to "target" is likely from martial training practice. The final /t/ is from the old pausal and liaison pronunciation; its (partial) restoration as the basic form may have been reinforced by related butte. See: Old Norse Nouns '
bútr'.
Translations