butterfly
n. countablen. a type of insect with large, often colorful wings that flies during the day. You usually see them in gardens or near flowers.
n. a nectar-feeding insect with two pairs of large, typically brightly colored wings that are covered with microscopic scales.
A colorful butterfly landed on the flower.
The children spent the afternoon in the garden trying to identify each butterfly by the patterns on its wings.
During the spring migration, thousands of butterflies pass through the valley, creating a vibrant display of orange and black against the green landscape.
From Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English buterflēoge, equivalent to butter + fly. Cognate with Dutch botervlieg, German Butterfliege (“butterfly”). The name may have originally been applied to butterflies of a yellowish color, or reflected a belief that butterflies ate milk and butter (compare German Molkendieb (“butterfly”, literally “whey-thief”) and Low German Botterlicker (“butterfly”, literally “butter-licker”)), or that they excreted a butter-like substance (compare Dutch boterschijte (“butterfly”, literally “butter-excretor”)). Compare also German Schmetterling from Schmetten (“cream”), German Low German Bottervögel (“butterfly”, literally “butter-fowl”). More at butter, fly. An alternate theory suggests that the first element may have originally been Old English butor- (“beater”), a mutation of bēatan (“to beat”), but this would not explain the cognates in other languages or the other names formed with milk products. Superseded non-native Middle English papilion (“butterfly”) borrowed from Old French papillon (“butterfly”).