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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: Etymology of Butterfly
Message-ID: <Cz4D9H.Aqy@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <1994Nov9.002829.29723@ac.dal.ca>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 20:08:02 GMT
Lines: 128

In article <1994Nov9.002829.29723@ac.dal.ca> nextug@ac.dal.ca (Christopher Majka) writes:
>iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski) writes:
>> Anyway, _dushichka_ is Bulgarian; the Russian word is _dushechka_,
>> but it has nothing to do with either butterflies or the souls of
>> the dead; its only meaning is `dearie', as a form of familiar address.
>
>In fact (Bulgarian) _dushka_ = _dushechka_ (Russian).

Erm, _dushka_ is not Bulgarian either.  I've only ever heard it in a
folk (?) song that doesn't seem to make much sense; its refrain goes:

  _Alena,  galena,   portokalena, / blaga dushka medena,     shekerena._
   scarlet cherished orange (ADJ)   sweet soulie honey (ADJ) sugar (ADJ)

_Portokalena_ means `associated with (eg as sweet as) oranges (the fruit)',
not `orange (in colour)'.  I don't know the rest of the song, so I can't
say who or what these epithets refer to.

_Dushichka_ is the only diminutive of _dusha_ `soul' actually used in
Bulgarian; Russian has _dushonka_, _dushka_, _dushen'ka_ and _dushechka_,
only the first of which actually means `soul'.

>Why butterflies should be considered an unplesant animal associated
>with witches is, however, beyond me.

Apparently any unpleasant animal could be associated with witches.
And winged caterpillars are hardly Nature's greatest pride.

>Interestingly, however, this notion may be related to a Serbian
>belief that a butterfly is the soul of a witch.

It is reported that the Incas believed that a dead man's soul may try
to return to the body in the shape of a (butter)fly, so whenever a criminal
was hanged (the most popular punishment in Inca law), a man was given
the chore to stand near the body (which was left hanging yet for a while
for better publicity) and chase away the insects, lest the soul return
and justice be undone.  (Source: a silly novel I read once.)

>> Recall that _motyle"k_ is `moth' in Russian.
>
>In fact _motyle"k_ refers to *both* moth *and* butterfly [...].

That's right.

>> The etymological dictionary I referred to above is not sure
>> about the origin of _motyle"k_.  One possibility is that it is derived
>> from the obsolete word _motyla_ or _motylo_ `dung', and its original
>> meaning was `dung moth' (whatever that is) or possibly `dung beetle'.

Correction: this hypothesis comes from Vasmer's etymological dictionary.
The _m_ volume of the Moscow University's dictionary isn't available
in the library here.

>Dubious. There is no such thing as a 'dung moth'

That's my translation of the Russian _navoznyj motylek_.  The word
used in Vasmer's German original is _Mistfalter_.  I couldn't find it
in any German dictionary, though, so I don't know what he had in mind.

>and I can't imagine there being an association between dung bettles
>(scarabaeoids) and butterflies.

Stranger associations have proved relevant in etymology.  The S-C _metilj_
(Bulgarian _metil_), which is a flat worm living in the liver of mammals
(whatever it is called in English), is also listed as a cognate of
_motylek_ and friends.

>_Metelitsya_

_metelica_

>means snowstorm or, alternatively, describes a rapid, lively dance.

The latter meaning is an extension of the former, which in turn is
derived from the verbal root _met-_ `sweep'.  Vasmer derives the
obsolete word(s) for `dung' from the same root (thus originally
`something swept away`, 'rubbish, garbage').

>_Metkii_ means quick, dexterous, nimble.

No, _metkij_ means `precise'.  I'm pretty sure the cognate _metit'_ `aim'
is not related to _mesti_ `sweep' and _metat'_ `throw'.

>Could _metelik_/_motyle"k_/_motyl_/_moty'l_ all derive from some
>sense of the quick, nimble and agile flight of the butterfly?

Very likely.  Another etymological dictionary I came across brings up
the verbal root _mot-_ (_motat'_) `wag'.  So everything points to the
vibrating movement of the wings or the circular paths characteristic
of the insect's flight.

[re Hungarian]
>Could _lepke_, as in the Ukrainian case, also derive from some sense
>of motion? _Le'pe's_ meaning move, step or keep measure,

`Keep measure'?  _Le'pe's_ is a noun, and it denotes a single step.
Anyway, I don't think _lep(ke)_ can be related to _le'p_.  There are
some cases in which _e'_ can become _e_ (or vice versa) in Hungarian,
but my intuitions are that this hasn't happened here.  If the word
were *_le'pke_, it might've been a different story.

[re Bulgarian]
>> _Peperuda_ sounds like a fairly clear case of onomatopoeia.
>
>Onamatopeic of _what_? Butterflies are, by and large, silent creatures.

Not when they pass near one's ear.  Or maybe we're dealing with
synaesthesia -- audible vibration symbolising visible vibration?
There's also Hebrew _parpar_, Georgian _p'ep'ela_, ...

>>> Is there kanji character for the Japanese 'chocho'
>> That's _cho=cho=_. (Damn. Why are some people so fond of disregarding 
>> diacritics?)
>
>We're not all professional linguists familiar with the conventions of
>how diacritics are transposed to an ascii keyboard.

Even if there were such conventions, familiarity with them would not
necessarily be correlated with linguisthood.  There's no obligation to
employ my method of encoding Czech or Hungarian acutes or Japanese macrons,
as long as one does *something* to indicate their presence, because
they do make a difference.

-- 
`That's yer oan problem, Judas', they telt him.  `It's nae concern tae us.'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk/chaos.cs.brandeis.edu)  (The G-- G--)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
