手机版
Patrick Boyer is one of the authors I met earlier this year and the reason he chose butterfly is because he actually has a small publishing house called Blue Butterfly Books.
帕特里克•博耶是我今年早些时候认识的作家之一。他选择蝴蝶实际上是因为他拥有一间小小的出版社：蓝蝶图书。
But butterfly is a good word.
不过呢，蝴蝶是个好词。
Someone I know and love told me with much confidence that the word butterflycame about because some king or other tended to get his merds wixed up and that because he mispronounced “flutter by” as “butter fly” all his subjects were too scared to point out that the emperor had no clothes and so like a bunch of sniveling sycophants started calling the insects that had been fluttering by butterflies.
一位我认识并深爱的人曾信心满满地告诉我蝴蝶一词的来历：从前有个国王，他有一次说都不会话，把“flutter by”说成了“butterfly”，而他的手下们太过惧怕他，都不敢说出皇帝其实光着腚。于是，一群哭哭啼啼的马屁精就此开始把这种飞来飞去的昆虫叫做蝴蝶了。
At the time I was told this I had no idea why a butterfly might be called a butterflyand so I kept my mouth shut (like a sniveling sycophant).
我听到这些话的时候，并不知道蝴蝶为什么叫做蝴蝶。所以我保持沉默（就像个哭哭啼啼的马屁精）。
It turns out that entire etymology research departments with vast databases at world leading universities don’t really have much idea either so I’m in good company.
结果，那些世界领先大学里拥有海量数据库的语源学研究机构也说不出个所以然，真是吾道不孤啊。
They do have a few cute theories though.
不过它们倒是有些有趣的理论。
The word was already being used in Old English and shows up in the written record about the year 1000.
这个词在古英语中已经存在，最早的文字记录在公元1000年左右。
Butterflies are usually objects of delight but the proposed etymology for the name comes in various flavors of whatever the opposite of delight is.
蝴蝶常常被看做快乐的象征。可语源学考察的结果全是快乐的反义词。
The mildest of these is simply that these insects were named because they tended to alight on milk or cheese left unattended. Or simply that some species have yellow wings.
这其中，最温柔的一种解释很简单：它们喜欢落在没有罩好的牛奶或者奶酪上面。或者，有些品种的翅膀是黄色的。
But this theory is extended by superstitious minds to make those milk-stealing butterflies actually witches who have taken a more attractive form to achieve their thievery.
但这个理论被迷信思想带跑了！这些偷牛奶的蝴蝶其实是巫婆，蝴蝶的外表是她们为了更容易偷到东西而套上的漂亮马甲。
I’ll save the worst till last and before I tell you I’ll just touch on the word butter and its etymology.
最刺激的就留到最后说吧。让我先来告诉你“butter”这个词和它的词源。
Butter is an unusual word that appears to have come into English during the days of Old English but from Latin. Most Latinate English words appeared with the French of the Norman Conquest of 1066 or appeared even later, introduced by people thinking they were smart to drop Latin based words into their writing.
在古英语时代，从拉丁语进入英语的butter是个不寻常的单词。大多数基于拉丁语的英语单词是在1066年诺曼征服时的法语中出现的，有些则出现得更晚，它们是由那些自以为在文章里插上几个基于拉丁文的单词就很有文化的人们带进来的。
Butter, on the other hand, must have been one of those words learned by Germanic peoples in continental Europe while rubbing up against the Romans before Old English even got started.
butter则不同。这个词极有可能是欧洲中部的日耳曼人厉兵秣马准备对付罗马人的时候学会的，而那时，古英语的时代还没开始。
Not everyone believes it but the Latin precursor to butter is supposed to have come from Greek where the leading “bo” sound might have come from their word for a cow, coming even earlier from Indo-European and also giving us words likebovine.
这个说法倒不是人人相信，但是有理由认为butter的拉丁文前身来自希腊语，开头的"bo"可能是来自他们称呼奶牛的单词，而这一词又在更早前来自印欧语系。印欧语系还给过我们其他的单词，比如bovine。
The second half of the word butter is supposed to represent turos the Greek word for “cheese” and also have Indo-European roots.
butter一词的另一半据悉代表着希腊语单词turos，即英语中的“奶酪”，同样有印欧语系的渊源。
This would make butter literally mean “cow cheese.”
如此一来，butter字面上的意思就是“奶牛酪”。
The last etymological theory on our word of the day butterfly is that these pretty little creatures were named because their droppings were yellow and looked like butter.
我们今天的单词，butterfly的最后一种词源考察结论是：这些可爱的小家伙得名于它们的便便——黄色，看起来像黄油一样的便便。
This unlikely theory was put forward by a 19th century etymologist who I haven’t talked about before on podictionary. Hensleigh Wedgwood found a Dutch name for butterflies boterschijte and thought this pointed to nomenclature by excrement.
这种不太能让人相信的理论出自一位19世纪的语源学家，我还没有在单词爱好者专栏中谈过他。亨斯利•韦奇伍德发现了蝴蝶的荷兰名字boterschijte，认为这个名字指向排泄物命名法。
If the Wedgwood name sounds familiar it should. Not only did Hensleigh write an etymological dictionary he just happened to be the grandson of Josiah Wedgwood, the guy who founded the fine china company.
韦奇伍德的名字听起来挺耳熟吧？应该的。不仅是因为亨斯利写过一本语源学词典，还因为他恰好就是约西亚•韦奇伍德，那位优质瓷器公司的创始人的孙子。