A caller suspects that the word butterfly derives from a reversal of the expression “flutter by.” But is it? Her question leads to a discussion of butterfly behavior and a handy five-letter word that means “caterpillar poop.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Etymology of Butterfly”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Evan Seitz from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Well, hello, Evan. How you doing?
Good. How are you?
Doing fine.
I was just calling with a question about butterflies.
Butterfly.
The word?
The word, yes.
I have a friend who was thinking about them, and she remarked that she wished they were called flutterbys instead.
And I said that I thought that they had been once upon a time.
But now I can’t find where I found that fact.
And I was wondering if it was true.
Well, Evan, there’s a reason that you can’t find that.
And that’s because butterfly is an amazingly old word.
It goes back more than a thousand years, butterfly or a form of it.
And it doesn’t come from flutterby.
Right.
Oh, no.
We always hate to disappoint like that.
But yeah, somehow, over the centuries, this insect has been associated with butter in one way or another.
And the big question is why.
Why is this little delicate insect somehow associated with butter?
Do you have any theories about that yourself?
No, I don’t.
Well, there’s some controversy over why that might be.
I think the most likely hypothesis is simply that in Europe, a lot of the really common butterflies that you’ll see will have a yellow color.
So it’s the buttery color of the wings.
And there have been other theories, one of which is that butterfly poop is yellow.
I’ve tried to track that one down, and maybe this is someplace where we need entomologists helping us with our etymology.
No, but seriously, I’ve heard conflicting reports about whether butterflies poop or not.
Yeah, it’s not in very large quantities.
No.
There aren’t mounds of it in the garden.
No, no, no.
And I think some of them kind of recycle it within their own bodies.
So I think we can cross off the butterfly poop theory, although I like it.
Right.
Well, thank you very much.
You sound disappointed.
A little bit.
But you get to talk about butterfly poop on the radio.
What could be better?
That’s true.
All right.
All right.
Well, thank you again.
Okay.
Best of luck.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Grant, I do know that caterpillars poop,
And do you know what the word for caterpillar poop is?
It’s a great word.
Caterpillar poop?
I don’t know.
No.
I don’t know what is it.
No.
It’s a great word for scrabble or crossword puzzles.
Inch crap?
I don’t know.
Something.
No.
The word is frass, F-R-A-S-S.
It’s a great word, the word for caterpillar poop.
Frass.
That’s a nice little word.
Anyway, if you want to poop on a particular word, give us a call.
The number is 1-877-929-9673.
That’s 1-877-WAYWORD.
Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.
