The books were written by Stephen Cosgrove and illustrated by Robin James. Serendipity is a series of children's books about animals and other creatures. JSTOR ( June 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: 'Serendipity' book series – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Books and references suggest that butterfly stem from butterfleoge the rest is unknown.This article needs additional citations for verification. The newsletter and Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, Volumes 15-17 suggested two possible derivations and none had your claim. Why is a butterfly called a butterfly in Britain? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the reason is unknown! However, two possible derivations are offered: (1) from the Anglo-Saxon butterfleoge (literally butterfly) so called after the yellow species, and/or from the Old Dutch boterschijte (butter-shit) from the colour of the excretion of Cabbage White! Conclusionĭoes the word “butterfly” stem from an erroneous transcription of “flutterby”? Is it likely or at least possible that the word Butterfly did in fact start as some variant or analogue of Flutterby? The Newsletter and Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, Volumes 15-17 also confirms that the origins of butterfly are unknown: Or, less creatively, simply because the pale yellow color of many species' wings suggests the color of butter. Perhaps based on the old notion that the insects (or witches disguised as butterflies) consume butter or milk that is left uncovered.

Butterfly comes from the Old English 'buttorfleoge', according to :īutterfly (n.): Old English buttorfleoge, evidently butter (n.) + fly (n.), but of obscure signification. However, the word for butterfly is not derived from that usage. Some instances of the transposition of syllables are pillercat for caterpiller and flutterby for butterfly in the usage of children. Posts with unsourced content may be edited or deleted.įlutterby was (or is) used by children as an expression for butterfly.ĭialect Notes, Volume 4 was published by American Dialect Society in 1917. Want to improve this post? Add citations from reputable sources by editing the post.

Flutterby by Robin James