Is it true that butterflies used to be called flutterbys? | Notes and Queries

Is it true that butterflies used to be called flutterbys?

Mark Wallingford, Dorchester

• Yes.

  Garrick Alder, London

• Yes, by Dr Spooner.

  David, Le Havre, France

• This myth is a genteelism, designed to avoid mentioning the fact that the butterfly is so called because of what its excrement looks like. Compare its name in German; 'boterschitt'.

  David Cottis, London

• Swift invented (or wrote down) a number of these sort of things, where changing the word in some way is supposed to supply its definition and origin. My favourite, apart from "flutterby", is "a pot he carries" to explain "apothecary".

  Peter Marcus, London, UK

• Given the insect's fondness for the common bush, the name is obviously a corruption of Buddleia Fly. Well, why not?

  Pete Wigens, Stroud, UK

• Not only that but the German for butterfly is not 'Boterschitt' as David Cottis avers. It is 'Basisrecheneinheit'.

  Pete Wigens, Stroud, UK