手機版
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•博耶是我今年早些時候認識的作家之一。他選擇蝴蝶實際上是因為他擁有一間小小的出版社：藍蝶圖書。
But butterfly is a good word.
不過呢，蝴蝶是個好詞。
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.
一位我認識并深愛的人曾信心滿滿地告訴我蝴蝶一詞的來歷：從前有個國王，他有一次說都不會話，把“flutter by”說成了“butterfly”，而他的手下們太過懼怕他，都不敢說出皇帝其實光著腚。于是，一群哭哭啼啼的馬屁精就此開始把這種飛來飛去的昆蟲叫做蝴蝶了。
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).
我聽到這些話的時候，并不知道蝴蝶為什么叫做蝴蝶。所以我保持沉默（就像個哭哭啼啼的馬屁精）。
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.
結(jié)果，那些世界領(lǐng)先大學(xué)里擁有海量數(shù)據(jù)庫的語源學(xué)研究機構(gòu)也說不出個所以然，真是吾道不孤啊。
They do have a few cute theories though.
不過它們倒是有些有趣的理論。
The word was already being used in Old English and shows up in the written record about the year 1000.
這個詞在古英語中已經(jīng)存在，最早的文字記錄在公元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.
蝴蝶常常被看做快樂的象征。可語源學(xué)考察的結(jié)果全是快樂的反義詞。
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.
這其中，最溫柔的一種解釋很簡單：它們喜歡落在沒有罩好的牛奶或者奶酪上面。或者，有些品種的翅膀是黃色的。
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.
但這個理論被迷信思想帶跑了！這些偷牛奶的蝴蝶其實是巫婆，蝴蝶的外表是她們?yōu)榱烁菀淄档綎|西而套上的漂亮馬甲。
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說吧。讓我先來告訴你“butter”這個詞和它的詞源。
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.
在古英語時代，從拉丁語進入英語的butter是個不尋常的單詞。大多數(shù)基于拉丁語的英語單詞是在1066年諾曼征服時的法語中出現(xiàn)的，有些則出現(xiàn)得更晚，它們是由那些自以為在文章里插上幾個基于拉丁文的單詞就很有文化的人們帶進來的。
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則不同。這個詞極有可能是歐洲中部的日耳曼人厲兵秣馬準(zhǔn)備對付羅馬人的時候?qū)W會的，而那時，古英語的時代還沒開始。
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.
這個說法倒不是人人相信，但是有理由認為butter的拉丁文前身來自希臘語，開頭的"bo"可能是來自他們稱呼奶牛的單詞，而這一詞又在更早前來自印歐語系。印歐語系還給過我們其他的單詞，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一詞的另一半據(jù)悉代表著希臘語單詞turos，即英語中的“奶酪”，同樣有印歐語系的淵源。
This would make butter literally mean “cow cheese.”
如此一來，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.
我們今天的單詞，butterfly的最后一種詞源考察結(jié)論是：這些可愛的小家伙得名于它們的便便——黃色，看起來像黃油一樣的便便。
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.
這種不太能讓人相信的理論出自一位19世紀的語源學(xué)家，我還沒有在單詞愛好者專欄中談過他。亨斯利•韋奇伍德發(fā)現(xiàn)了蝴蝶的荷蘭名字boterschijte，認為這個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.
韋奇伍德的名字聽起來挺耳熟吧？應(yīng)該的。不僅是因為亨斯利寫過一本語源學(xué)詞典，還因為他恰好就是約西亞•韋奇伍德，那位優(yōu)質(zhì)瓷器公司的創(chuàng)始人的孫子。