Re: Butterflies
| From: | Carsten Becker <naranoieati@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Saturday, November 5, 2005, 11:38 |
|---|
[I did not say I wouldn't write the list at all, I just
won't probably post very much, so I won't go completely]
On Thu, 03 Nov 2005, 18:12 CET, Larry Sulky wrote:
> I had always heard that this word was originally
> "flutter-by", but
> through some humourous linguistic process got tied up with
> the concept
> of "fly" (the insect) and so became "butter-fly", then
> just
> "butterfly". Is this just a cute etymological myth?
In German, it's "Schmetterling" which is made up of
"Schmetten" (= Sahne = cream) and "-ling" (= "is associated
with"). IIRC it's cognate to the Slavic word for it which is
also something similar to this in meaning.
Ayeri has no word for it yet, neither does Daléian.
Carsten