buttercup

Etymology

It is a compound from English butter + cup.^[2][3][4] The plant is so called from the colour and cup-like shape of its flowers.^[2][5][6] The OED compares the older plant names butterflower, gold cup and kingcup,^[2] and Hoad and Etymonline take the name as probably a blend of butterflower, itself modelled on Dutch boterbloem, with gold cup or kingcup.^[7][4] The OED rejects explanations based on popular notions that the plants have something to do with butter.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cup for holding butter: 1497–8, in the account rolls of Durham Abbey, a sense obsolete after 1543.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The plant name is a separate, later use of the compound: the revised OED finds it in 1688, in John Ray's Historia Plantarum,^[2] although the 1989 edition, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged first record it in 1777.^[8][4][5] It was at first used in the plural, buttercups.^[3] From 1839 it was applied, with a qualifying word, to unrelated plants with similar flowers,^[2] and in dialect it named the lesser celandine, the marsh marigold and silverweed in different counties.^[9] Since 1879 it has also been used as an adjective for a bright golden yellow,^[2] and since 1930, chiefly in North America, for a variety of winter squash.^[2]

Timeline

• 1497–8 – a cup for holding butter (obsolete by 1543).^[2]
• 1688 – a plant of the genus Ranunculus with yellow cup-shaped flowers.^[2]
• 1839 – with a qualifying word, other plants with similar flowers.^[2]
• 1879 – adjective, bright golden yellow.^[2]
• 1930 – a variety of winter squash.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of many plants of the genus Ranunculus, with bright yellow cup-shaped flowers, common in meadows.^[5][10][2]
2. A vivid, deep yellow colour.^[5][2]
3. (chiefly North American) A round, flattened variety of winter squash with dark green skin (buttercup squash).^[2]

Word family

• Bermuda buttercup
• bulbous buttercup
• buttercup squash

Related words

• butterflower
• kingcup
• gold cup

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins