butterfly – English noun declension

English noun forms of butterfly

Noun: butterfly
Singularbutterfly
Pluralbutterflies

Sample Sentences

  • It is true. I am like a butterfly, and I shall only live a little while. [a. 1931 (date written), D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “[Personalia and Fragments.] [Autobiographical Fragment].”, in Edward D[avid] McDonald, editor, Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence, London: William Heinemann, published 1936, →OCLC, page 836:]
  • Dr Andre Gilburn, of the University of Stirling, who led the butterfly study, said: “Our study not only identifies a worrying link between the use of neonicotinoids and declines in butterflies but also suggests that the strength of their impact on many species could be huge.” [2015 November 24, Patrick Barkham, “Pesticide may be reason butterfly numbers are falling in UK, says study”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2016:]
  • butterfly tape; butterfly bandage; butterfly strips
  • I get terrible butterflies before an exam.
  • He was affable; therefore he was frivolous. The women liked him; therefore he was a butterfly. [1859, George Meredith, chapter 15, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:]
  • 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[…]. [1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:]
  • One potential butterfly could be JFK having another son the year after the POD instead of a daughter.
  • What does it mean to be a butterfly in Pattaya? It means, just like a butterfly briefly visits many flowers, you will briefly visit many different girls. [2022 December 9, Darren C, “Paying For Bar Girls, Sex in Pattaya”, in Pattaya Unlimited:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws
3. Proto-Hellenic *gʷous
4. Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs)
5. Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂-
6. Proto-Indo-European *-rós
7. Proto-Indo-European *tuh₂rós
8. Proto-Hellenic *tūrós
9. Ancient Greek τυρός (turós)
10. Ancient Greek βούτῡρον (boútūron)bor.
11. Latin būtȳrumbor.
12. Proto-West Germanic *buterā
13. Old English butere
14. Proto-Indo-European *plew-
15. Proto-Indo-European *plewk-
16. Proto-Indo-European *-eti
17. Proto-Indo-European *pléwketi
18. Proto-Germanic *fleuganądeverb.
19. Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ
20. Proto-West Germanic *fleugā
21. Old English flēoge
22. Old English buterflēoge
23. Middle English boterflye
24. English butterfly
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. Superseded non-native Middle English papilion (“butterfly”) borrowed from Old French papillon (“butterfly”).
28. Contrary to popularised belief, the form "butterfly" was not derived from an earlier flutterby. See: Middle English Nouns 'buterflie', Old English Nouns 'buterflēoge', Dutch Nouns 'botervlieg', German Nouns 'Butterfliege', Dutch Nouns 'boterschijte', German Nouns 'Schmetterling'.

Verbs referencing "butterfly"

Danish Nouns butterfly, Dutch Nouns botervlieg, Russian Nouns баттерфляй.