butere

Forms

butere f (weak n-stem; genitive singular buteran, nominative plural buteran)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin būtȳrum (“butter”), one of the early Latin loans that Durkin dates before about 650.^[2][3] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek βούτυρον (boútūron), which Köbler and Etymonline analyse as βοῦς (boûs, “cow”) and τυρός (turós, “cheese”);^[4][5] Etymonline adds that this may be a folk etymology.^[4][5]

The same loan is found in Old Frisian butere and Old High German butira, and Wiktionary sets up Proto-West Germanic *buterā for the common West Germanic form.^[4][1][5] It is a weak feminine noun, genitive ⟨buteran⟩.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is Bald's Leechbook, in a manuscript of the mid-tenth century: Hæbbe him ær on muþe ele oþþe buteran “let him first have oil or butter in his mouth”.^[7][8] The laws of Ine (Ine 70.1) list butter among the food rents, but the earliest manuscript of those laws is not dated here.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Butter appears above all in the medical recipes, as an ingredient and a salve: fresh butter, melted butter, butter to be clarified.^[6][10] Durkin counts about two hundred instances, a high frequency due largely to these recipes; the word has no exact native synonym, though smeoru “fat, grease” comes close.^[11][12] Clark Hall also gives a sense “milk for buttermaking” in the Leechdoms.^[13] Ælfric explains that the Italians use oil in their food as the English use butter.^[10]

It continued as Middle English buter and English butter.^[1][5]

Timeline

• s. x med. – ele oþþe buteran “oil or butter” in Bald's Leechbook.^[7][8]
• s. xi¹ or xi med. – butter in the Old English Herbarium.^[14][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. butter.^[6][4][15]
2. (medicine) milk for making butter.^[13]

Word family

• cūbutere
• buterflēoge

Descendants

• Middle English buter (→ English butter; Scots butter; Scots buter)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 110
3. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 39
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. butere
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 136
7. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 412
8. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 29
10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 113
11. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 135
12. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 138
13. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 59
14. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 347
15. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 52