buttorfleoge

The Old English buttorfleoge is a compound of buttor (butter) and fleoge (flying creature). The word appears in glossaries as early as the eleventh century, but its logic has baffled etymologists for just as long. One theory holds that butterflies were named for the butter-yellow color of common European species like the brimstone. Another, proposed by the Dutch naturalist Jan Swammerdam in the 1600s, suggests that butterfly droppings resemble butter. A third claims that witches in butterfly form stole butter and milk. None of these theories has won.

Other Germanic languages made the same strange compound. Dutch has vlinder, but older Dutch used botervlieg. German chose Schmetterling, from Schmetten, a word for cream — still dairy, but at least a different dairy product. The Romance languages went a different direction entirely: French papillon comes from Latin papilio, which may imitate the flapping of wings. Spanish mariposa may derive from an old phrase meaning 'Mary, alight' — a prayer to the Virgin.

The butterfly's association with the soul is older than any of these names. The Greek word psyche meant both 'soul' and 'butterfly.' Aristotle used the same word for both without explanation, as though the connection were obvious. In Aztec belief, the souls of dead warriors returned as butterflies and hummingbirds. The Maori word for butterfly, pepe, also means spirit. Across unrelated cultures, the insect that transforms from a crawling thing into a flying thing became a metaphor for what happens after death.

English kept the butter. French kept the flutter. Greek kept the soul. The insect is the same in every language. The name tells you what the culture noticed first.