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Origin and history of butter

butter(n.)

Old English butere "butter, the fatty part of milk," obtained from cream by churning, general West Germanic (compare Old Frisian, Old High German butera, German Butter, Dutch boter), an early loan-word from Latin butyrum "butter" (source of Italian burro, Old French burre, French beurre), from Greek boutyron. This is apparently "cow-cheese," from bous "ox, cow" (from PIE root *gwou- "ox, bull, cow") + tyros "cheese" (from PIE root *teue- "to swell"); but this might be a folk etymology of a Scythian word.

The product was used from an early date in India, Iran and northern Europe, but not in ancient Greece and Rome. Herodotus described it (along with cannabis) among the oddities of the Scythians. In old chemistry, applied to certain substances of buttery consistency. Butter-knife, a small, dull knife used for cutting butter at the table, is attested from 1818.

butter(v.)

Old English buterian "spread butter on," from the same source as butter (n.). The figurative meaning "to flatter lavishly" is by 1798 (with up (adv.), in Connelly's Spanish-English dictionary, p.413). Related: Buttered; buttering. To know which side one's bread is buttered on is to be able to take care of oneself.

Entries linking to butter

bread-and-butter(adj.)

"pertaining to basic material needs," from the noun phrase, "one's means of living," 1685, a figurative use of the words for the basic foodstuffs; see bread (n.) + butter (n.). Also, in reference to bread-and-butter as the typical food of young boys and girls, "of the age of growth; school-aged" (1620s).

butane(n.)

paraffin hydrocarbon, 1875, from butyl, hydrocarbon from butyric acid, a product of fermentation found in rancid butter, from Latin butyrum (see butter (n.)) + chemical suffix -ane.

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Trends of butter

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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butterfly
common name of any lepidopterous insect active in daylight, Old English buttorfleoge, evidently butter (n.) + fly (n.), but the name is of obscure signification. Perhaps based on the old notion that the insects (or, according to Grimm, witches disguised as butterflies) consume bu
buttermilk
liquid that remains after the butter has been churned out of milk, c. 1500, from butter (n.) + milk (n.). Compare German Buttermilch, Dutch botermelk. Middle French had laict beurré and babeurre. Meaning "soured milk" by 1590s. Said to be either from a practice of letting th
butternut
also butter-nut, 1753, nut of the white walnut, a North American tree; transferred to the tree itself from 1783, from butter (n.) + nut (n.). So called from the oil it contains. The dye made from the tree's inner bark was yellowish-brown, and the word was used (from 1861) to desc
smorgasbord
1893, from Swedish smörgåsbord, literally "butter-goose table," from smörgås, "slice of bread and butter," compounded from...smör "butter" (see smear (n.)) and gås, literally "goose" (and from the same Germanic root that yielded English goose (n...[Smörgås] properly signifies "a slice of bread-and-butter"; and has come by custom—in much the same way as when we familiarly...
margarine
butter substitute, 1873, from French margarine (see margarin)....The "enterprising merchant" of Paris, who sells Margarine as a substitute for Butter, and does not sell his customers by...selling it as Butter, and at Butter's value, has very likely found honesty to be the best policy....
dairy
c. 1300, daerie, "building for making butter and cheese; dairy farm," formed with Anglo-French -erie (from Latin -arius;...Meaning "branch of farming concerned with the production of milk, butter, and cheese" is from 1670s....Later also "shop where milk, butter, etc. are sold."...
salve
Middle Dutch salve, Dutch zalf, Old High German salba, German salbe "ointment"), from PIE *solpa-, from root *selp- "fat, butter..." (source also of Greek elpos "fat, oil," Albanian gjalpë "butter," Sanskrit sarpis "melted butter")....
food
Middle English foode, fode, from Old English foda "food, nourishment; fuel," also figurative, from Proto-Germanic *fodon (source also of Swedish föda, Danish föde, Gothic fodeins), from Germanic *fod- "food," from PIE *pat-, extended form of root *pa- "to feed." Food chain is by
stick
"piece of wood, generally rather long and slender," Middle English stikke, from Old English sticca "twig or slender branch from a tree or shrub," also "rod, peg, spoon," from Proto-Germanic *stikkon- "pierce, prick" (source also of Old Norse stik, Middle Dutch stecke, stec, Old H
freight
early 15c. "transporting of goods and passengers by water," variant of fraght, which is from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German vracht, vrecht (see fraught). Danish fragt, Swedish frakt apparently also are from Dutch or Frisian. Also from Low German are Portuguese frete, Spanish f

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