Re: : Butterflies
| From: | João Ricardo de Mendonça <somnicorvus@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 2:19 |
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On 11/3/05, caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:
> The Spanish is mariposa. Etymology? Is the Portuguese similar?
In Portuguese, mariposa means "moth". The word for "butterfly" is
borboleta. I don't know the etymology, but I can check it at the
library later.
Perhaps the original natlang list should be enhanced to include the
moth as well, since it seems some languages make no distiction between
butterflies and moths, or derive one word from the other. Besides the
Portuguese/Spanish example above, what caught my eyes was Czech mot'l
and Polish motyl. Could they be related to English moth, or is it just
a coincidence?
João Ricardo de Mendonça
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