Reading Old English

[Hallwine]

Had to reset my password but made it in, so our little subforum is made.

Had my first OE question, Butterflies have very different names accross europe: Pappilon Fr, Schmetterling De, where did Butterfly come from?
Well OE is Buterflege or Butterflige but also falde, fifalde fiffealde. No obvious connection to modern german or French (Latin)

 

[Odola]

Had to reset my password but made it in, so our little subforum is made.

Had my first OE question, Butterflies have very different names accross europe: Pappilon Fr, Schmetterling De, where did Butterfly come from?
Well OE is Buterflege or Butterflige but also falde, fifalde fiffealde. No obvious connection to modern german or French (Latin)

"Schmetterling" seems to have a similar meaning as "Schmetten" - connected to English "smooth" - means "cream"; so "Schmetterling" would be something like "creamling". So there is a clear connection to dairy too.

 

[AldoMcgrath]

Wow, your theory sounds plausible. I think it was. After all, there were cream-colored butterflies in that area. Based on this fact, people began to call them so, and the difference in pronunciation and spelling is just a difference in dialects. Old English is actually incredibly complex. Among our professors at the college where I was taking a degree in botany, there was an opinion that Old English was several times more complicated than modern Russian. And if you've even tried to learn Russian, you'll understand how complicated it is. Russian is one of the two most difficult languages in the world, and it is completely justified.

 

[Odola]

Wow, your theory sounds plausible. I think it was. After all, there were cream-colored butterflies in that area. Based on this fact, people began to call them so, and the difference in pronunciation and spelling is just a difference in dialects.

There was a superstition then that butterflies drink (butter)milk...

 

[Cyneburga]

There was a superstition then that butterflies drink (butter)milk...

Old German names included Botterlicker (butter-licker), Molkendieb (whey-thief), and Milchdieb (milk-thief).

the changing identities of the butterfly

Since antiquity, European languages have variously named the butterfly, in particular by using sound reduplications expressive of its fluttering.

wordhistories.net