butter

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈbʌt.ə/, US /ˈbʌt̬.ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English butter, inherited from Old English butere, an early West Germanic loanword (compare Old High German butera, German Butter, Dutch boter)^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin būtȳrum (“butter”),^[2][4] from Ancient Greek βούτυρον (boútūron),^[2][3] apparently “cow-cheese”, from βοῦς (boûs, “ox, cow”) and τυρός (tūrós, “cheese”).^[2][4] This may be a folk etymology, or a loan translation, of a Scythian word.^[2][4] Latin būtȳrum is also the source of French beurre and Italian burro.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fatty substance made from cream by churning: about 1000 in the OED and Barnhart.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Butter was used early in India, Iran and northern Europe, but not in ancient Greece and Rome, which were cultures of olive oil.^[2][4] Herodotus listed it among the oddities of the Scythians.^[2][4] In old chemistry it named various substances of buttery consistency.^[2][5] Figurative unctuous flattery is from 1823,^[5] and as if butter would not melt in one's mouth from 1530.^[5] The verb, to spread with butter, is from Old English buterian,^[2] and butter up, to flatter lavishly, is by 1798.^[2] Buttermilk is from before 1500, buttercup from 1777, butter knife from 1818 and butterscotch from 1855.^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – butter.^[5][4]
• 1530 – butter would not melt in one's mouth.^[5]
• 1777 – buttercup.^[4]
• 1798 – butter up.^[2]
• 1823 – flattery.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A soft yellowish fat made by churning cream, used in cooking and spread on bread.
2. A similar spread made from other foods: peanut butter.

Verb

1. To spread or cook with butter.
2. (with up) To flatter someone to get something.

Word family

• butterless
• butterlike
• butter up

Related words

• butterfly
• buttercup
• buttermilk
• butterscotch
• butyric

Usage notes

A butter, an animal that butts, is a different word, formed from the verb butt.^[6]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press