רעיון נחמד , רק שלפי מורפיקס כותבים
"sandwich" - מה שמערער טיפה את התאוריה ... ובקשר לפרפר : Insect Fear. Dear Word Detective: What about "butterfly"? My American Heritage Dictionary opines that the word comes from the thought that they steal milk and butter. It´s a more colorful thought that the word is an alteration of flutter-by: if any animal is thought to flutter, it would be a butterfly. A second thought is less poetic: that butterflies that are fly-like animals that favor the pistils and stamens of flowers, the part of the flower that is sometimes the yellow color of butter. Any thoughts? -- Scott Slotterbeck, via the Internet. Oh boy, a bug question. I love bugs. Yessiree, love those bugs. Actually, I hate bugs. My apartment building has a problem with humongous waterbugs every summer, which wreaks havoc with both my nerves and my writing. These brazen bugs waltz boldly into my study and march right up to me in broad daylight, leaving me, as defender of my hearth and home, no choice but to stand on my desk until they leave. Then I go to the movies for a day or two in case they come back. Butterflies, I know, are supposed to be beautiful and all that, but to me they´re still bugs. I suspect that the fluttering business is just a ruse to lull us into complacency, whereupon they´ll zoom down and ... well, never mind. Anyway, no one knows where butterflies get their name, although the theory endorsed by your dictionary does have some evidence to back it up. Apparently the German word for butterfly is "milchdieb," which translates as "milk thief." Evidently there was a theory in the Middle Ages that the little critters steal milk and butter, a myth possibly based on their light, colorful wings and delicate appearance. Or perhaps they really did steal milk and butter. It´s not impossible. Another theory is that butterflies got their name because (I kid you not) their excrement is said to resemble butter. Whoever thought this one up was pretty clearly spending too much time around butterflies and/or buying very low-grade butter.
