17 ms·

Why 'strangely' different? Why would you expect such exotic animals to be ultra-nonconserved? Schmetterling may be semantically linked to butterfly via 'batter

by singularity2001 9y ago

Why 'strangely' different? Why would you expect such exotic animals to be ultra-nonconserved? Schmetterling may be semantically linked to butterfly via 'batter-fly' (beater-fly) also: motyl~moth sommerfugl~summer-fly interesting that wiktionary for papillon shows a puppy :) might also be linked to big pupils and fake eyes [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/papillon https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/papillon

pale-hands 9y ago
You would expect closely related languages to have similar words for a common animal, i.e. to be at least somewhat conserved. I do find it mysterious. Another one: Dutch vlinder, Afrikaans (very close descendant) schoenlapper. I think the papillon dog breed has big, butterfly-like ears!
- stevula 9y ago
  But the main reason closely related languages tend to have similar words is because the word existed before the languages diverged. When the already distinct languages borrow a word independently, the word might have a different story or source behind it.
ginko 9y ago
> Schmetterling may be semantically linked to butterfly via 'batter-fly' (beater-fly) No, it's semantically linked via 'butter'. Schmetterling comes from Schmetten or Schmand which is a sort of heavy cream. There used to be a folk believe that butterflies would consume milk or butter if left uncovered. They were also sometimes called Milkdieb or milk-thief in German. See: www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=butterfly
- throwanem 9y ago
  > Schmetten or Schmand which is a sort of heavy cream. Is "smetana" a false friend?
  - MagnumOpus 9y ago
    That is disputed. Most scholars say that germanic "schmand" has different roots and is cognate with English "smooth" - some scholars however consider schmand a very old loan word from proto-slavic smetana.
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27471/does-the-word-butterfly-stem-from-an-erroneous-transcription-of-flutterby https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27471/does-the-... Adds a little too, looks like the idea of butterflies stealing butter may come from their voids looking like butter. I'd also like to imagine a story being made about them stealing butter to encourage children to cover the butter.
- singularity2001 9y ago
  Interesting. Butter + Schmetten/смета́на • (smetána) probably still come from beat:schmettern<>smith and or smeltan:smelt. Where do Schmeissfliege (blowfly) and Schmalz(molten fat) sit? ;)
  - singularity2001 9y ago
    Or maybe not: βούτῡρον (boútūron, “cow cheese”), compound of βοῦς (boûs, “ox, cow”) and τῡρός (tūrós, “cheese”). tūrós <> Taurus = cow hmmm
ajuc 9y ago
But Butterfly isn't exotic in most of indoeuropean-speaking countries?

pale-hands 9y ago

You would expect closely related languages to have similar words for a common animal, i.e. to be at least somewhat conserved. I do find it mysterious. Another one: Dutch vlinder, Afrikaans (very close descendant) schoenlapper. I think the papillon dog breed has big, butterfly-like ears!

stevula 9y ago
But the main reason closely related languages tend to have similar words is because the word existed before the languages diverged. When the already distinct languages borrow a word independently, the word might have a different story or source behind it.

ginko 9y ago

> Schmetterling may be semantically linked to butterfly via 'batter-fly' (beater-fly) No, it's semantically linked via 'butter'. Schmetterling comes from Schmetten or Schmand which is a sort of heavy cream. There used to be a folk believe that butterflies would consume milk or butter if left uncovered. They were also sometimes called Milkdieb or milk-thief in German. See: www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=butterfly

throwanem 9y ago
> Schmetten or Schmand which is a sort of heavy cream. Is "smetana" a false friend?
- MagnumOpus 9y ago
  That is disputed. Most scholars say that germanic "schmand" has different roots and is cognate with English "smooth" - some scholars however consider schmand a very old loan word from proto-slavic smetana.
pbhjpbhj 9y ago
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27471/does-the-word-butterfly-stem-from-an-erroneous-transcription-of-flutterby https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27471/does-the-... Adds a little too, looks like the idea of butterflies stealing butter may come from their voids looking like butter. I'd also like to imagine a story being made about them stealing butter to encourage children to cover the butter.
singularity2001 9y ago
Interesting. Butter + Schmetten/смета́на • (smetána) probably still come from beat:schmettern<>smith and or smeltan:smelt. Where do Schmeissfliege (blowfly) and Schmalz(molten fat) sit? ;)
- singularity2001 9y ago
  Or maybe not: βούτῡρον (boútūron, “cow cheese”), compound of βοῦς (boûs, “ox, cow”) and τῡρός (tūrós, “cheese”). tūrós <> Taurus = cow hmmm

ajuc 9y ago

But Butterfly isn't exotic in most of indoeuropean-speaking countries?