Forms: 1 buttorfleoʓe, 3 buterfliȝe, 4 boterfleȝe, -flye, botter-, bottir-, botyrflye, (-flie), 4–6 butterflye, -flie, 5 botur-, botir-, buttur-, buttyrflye, (-flie), butter-, buttyrfle(e, botirfley, 7 butterflee, 7– butterfly. [f. BUTTER sb.1 + FLY sb.; with OE. buttorfléoʓe cf. Du. botervlieg, earlier botervlieghe, mod.G. butterfliege. The reason of the name is unknown: Wedgwood points out a Du. synonym boterschijte in Kilian, which suggests that the insect was so called from the appearance of its excrement.]
1. An insect belonging to any of those diurnal species of lepidoptera, or scaly winged flies, which have knobbed antennæ, and carry their wings erect when at rest.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 121. Papilio, buttorfleoʓe.
a. 1300. Floriz & Bl., 473. Þer fliste ut a buterfliȝe Are ihc wiste on min iȝe.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nonne Prestes Prol., 24. Swich talkyng is nat worth a boterflye.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 46. Boturflye, papilio.
c. 1440. Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W.), III. xxv. Lyke to children þat renneth after butter flyes.
1548. Latimer, Serm. Ploughers (Arb.), 22. The butterflye gloriethe not in hyr owne dedes.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. iii. 78. Men like butter-flies, Shew not their mealie wings, but to the Summer.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 696. As Butterflies quicken with heat, which were benummed with cold.
1726. Gay, Fables, I. xxiv. 41. And what’s a Butterfly? At best He’s but a caterpillar, drest.
1845. Darwin, Nat. Voy., ii. 33. This [Papilio feronia] is the only butterfly which I have ever seen, that uses its legs for running.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, 312. Butterflies, that bear Upon their blue wings such red embers round.
2. fig. A vain, gaudily attired person (e.g., a courtier who flutters about the court); a light-headed, inconstant person; a giddy trifler.
1605. Shaks., Lear, V. iii. 13. Wee’l … tell old tales, and laugh At gilded Butterflies.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Fam. Ep., Wks. (1711), 142. Long since I learned not to esteem of any golden butterflies there [at court], but as of counters.
1767. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom. (ed. 4), I. ii. 76. Nor will you be in danger of appearing butterflies one day, and slatterns the next.
1841. Blackw. Mag., L. 63. Coroneted carriages abound: the butterflies of fashion are abroad.
1885. M. G. Watkins, in Academy, 5 Dec., 379/1. Sufficiently interesting to captivate that butterfly, the ‘general reader.’
b. Applied to something flimsy, like a butterfly’s wings.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 407. Those Churches which used unleavened bread, used no such butterflies as you doe; but had a great Cake which was sufficient for the whole congregation to communicate in.
† 3. Humorous designation for: ? Some sort of legal summons or paper. Obs.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1836), 140. If the poore manne haue not where with to pay … out goe butterflies and writtes as thick as haile.
4. The guide for the reins on the front of a hansom cab, named from a fancied resemblance to a butterfly with extended wings.
1883. Standard, 6 March, 6/3. The box covered the whole roof of the cab, preventing him [the cabman] from seeing the ‘butterfly.’
1885. Specif. Rowley & Wheeler’s Patent, No. 14398. The butterfly, or bracket, is screwed to the top of the Hansom cab.
5. Coal-mining. ? A set of catches that open out so as to prevent the falling of the cage.
1882. in West. Morn. News, 25 Nov., 5/6. The ascending cage was hurled into the headgear, smashing the butterflies and breaking the engine rope, and had it not been for the remaining butterflies the cage must have fallen to the bottom.
II. attrib. and comb.
6. attrib. Of, pertaining to, or resembling a butterfly; fig. vain, giddy, inconstant, frivolous.
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 103. The Bawd furnisheth them with Butterfly Garments.
1728. Mrs. Pendarves, in Mrs. Delany’s Corr., 165. All the butterfly men were at court last night.
1837. Fraser’s Mag., XV. 239. Mr. Bailey was a dandy of the butterfly order.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 171/2. The butterfly movement of the wings being most commonly resorted to.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, i. 3. He is fond of science … a thing his butterfly wife could not endure.
7. Simple combinations, as butterfly-like, -catching, -hunting.
1878. Browning, Poets Croisic, 53. The bard born to bask Butterfly-like in shine which kings and queens And baby-dauphins shed.
1881. J. Payn, Grape fr. Thorn, I. ii. 29. His only exercise (he was an entomologist) being butterfly-catching.
1881. Grant Allen, Vignettes Nat., iv. 31. The date when flower-hunting and butterfly-hunting both begin.
8. Special comb.: butterfly-block, Naut., a small block consisting of two wings containing rollers for a chain to pass over; butterfly clack, -cock = butterfly-valve; butterfly-fish, the Ocellated Blenny (Blennius ocellaris); butterfly-flower, the genus Schizanthus; butterfly nut (Mech.), a nut provided with wings so as to be turned by the thumb and finger = thumb-nut; butterfly orchis, a book-name for Habenaria chlorantha and H. bifolia; butterfly plant, the name of two Orchids, Oncidium papilio and Phalænopsis amabilis; also (quot. 1882) = butterfly flower; butterfly screw (Mech.), a screw with a thumb-piece, a thumb-screw; butterfly-shaped a. Bot. = PAPILIONACEOUS; butterfly-shell, the popular name of the genus Voluta of testaceous mollusks; butterfly-valve, a kind of double clack-valve, so called from its resemblance, when open, to a butterfly’s wings; butterfly-weed, a name of various American plants, esp. Asclepias tuberosa.
1883. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 41. Rollers or *butterfly blocks are fitted to bands round the yard.
1861. N. Rankine, Steam Engine, 123. A pair of flap valves placed hinge to hinge (usually made of one piece of leather fastened down in the middle) constitutes a *‘butterfly-clack.’
1740. R. Brookes, Art Angling, II. vi. 187. The *Butterfly-Fish is often exposed to sale at Venice among other small Fish.
1762. B. Stillingfl., Econ. Nat., in Misc. Tracts, 84. The butterfly fish … brings forth its fœtus alive.
1881. F. Darwin in Nature, XXIII. 334. It seems impossible to believe that a *butterfly-flower could be developed under such circumstances.
1869. Sir E. Reed, Shipbuild., xi. 233. When the door is to be closed, the clamp-screws (or ‘butterfly nuts’), which are hinged to the frame, are turned back from the doorway.
1882. Garden, 11 Feb., 91/2. Butterfly plants (Schizanthus) are a charming class of annuals.
1876. S. Kens. Mus. Catal., No. 1146. A milled headed screw works this lift, and an adjacent *butterfly screw.
1776. Withering, Bot. Arrangem. (1796), I. 306. Blossoms *butterfly-shaped, unequal.
c. 1865. Letheby, in Circ. Sc., I. 129/1. In this tube there is placed a *butterfly-valve.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 213. *Butterfly weed is a popular remedy in the United States for a variety of disorders.
Hence Butterflydom, -ism, nonce-wds.
1854. Standard, 27 Dec., 4/3. His [Beverly’s] pictures of the blissful regions of Butterflydom bring forth his dexterous pencil in all its radiancy.
1882. H. C. Merivale, Faucit of B., II. II. vii. 240. The world in all its aspects bore the pleasant face of butterflydom.
1832. Charleston Courier, 8 Aug., 2/4. Hereafter to … put down forever the silly dandyism and foppery of professional butterflyism, which makes the title of lawyer, physician, divine, or statesman mere empty names.
1866. S. G. Osborne, Lett. Educ. Yng. Children, 25. That great amount of butterflyism of which we see so much in after life.
