Etymo

butter

A dairy food made by churning cream.

Played on · Day 9 · word 2 of 5

A familiar word, four lives.

How butter reached English

oldest first
  • bous‘cow’
  • tyros‘cheese’

combined

  1. Greek

    boutyron

  2. Latin

    butyrum

    ‘butter’

  3. Old English

    butere

    ‘butter, the fatty part of milk’

  4. Middle English

    butter

  5. English

    butter

The story of butter

Greek boutyron passed into Latin as butyrum and into Old English as butere. The modern spelling looks ordinary enough to hide this long borrowing history. These cards select four forms while leaving out intermediate English spellings.

These are selected stages, not every spelling or intermediary. The story identifies omitted links; older forms did not all disappear at once.

Source

Merriam-Webster · butter

Historical forms and the borrowing route.

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