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3001 entries found
butt (n.4)
"flat fish," c. 1300, a general Germanic name applied to various kinds of flat fishes (Old Swedish but "flatfish," German Butte, Dutch bot), from Proto-Germanic *butt-, name for a flat fish, from PIE root *bhau- "to strike." "Hence butt-woman, who sells these, a fish-wife." [OED]
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butt (n.1)
"thick end," c. 1400, butte, which probably is related to Middle Dutch and Dutch bot, Low German butt "blunt, dull," Old Norse bauta, from Proto-Germanic *buttan, from PIE root *bhau- "to strike." Or related somehow to Old English buttuc "end, small piece of land," and Old Norse butr "short," from Proto-Germanic *butaz, which is from the same PIE root. Also probably mixed with Old French bot "extremity, end," which also is from Germanic (compare butt (n.3)). Meaning "remainder of a smoked cigarette" first recorded 1847.
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butt (v.)
"hit with the head, strike by thrusting" (as with the end of a beam or thick stick), c. 1200, from Anglo-French buter, Old French boter "to push, shove, knock; to thrust against," from Frankish or another Germanic source (compare Old Norse bauta, Low German boten "to strike, beat"), from Proto-Germanic *butan, from PIE root *bhau- "to strike."

Meaning "to join at the end, be contiguous" is from 1660s, partly a shortening of abut. To butt in "rudely intrude" is American English slang, attested from 1900. Related: Butted; butting.
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butt-end (n.)
"thick end," 1580s," from butt (n.1) + end (n.). Meaning "the mere end," without regard to thickness, is from 1590s.
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butte (n.)
"conspicuous elevation," especially a steep-sided one notable in its isolation, 1805, American English, from French butte, from Old French but "mound, knoll; target to shoot at" (see butt (n.3)). A relic of the French exploration of the upper Missouri region, introduced in English in Lewis & Clark's journals.
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butter (v.)
Old English buterian "spread butter on," from the same source as butter (n.). 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.
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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 attested from 1818.
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butter-bean (n.)
1819, so called for its color, from butter (n.) + bean (n.).
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butter-fingered (adj.)
"clumsy in the use of the hands, apt to let things fall," 1610s, from butter (n.) + finger (n.).
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butterball (n.)
"butter shaped into a ball," also figurative of plumpness, 1892, from butter (n.) + ball (n.1).
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