Etymologically
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butter

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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
  • 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