Butter

See also: butter

English

Etymology

Various origins:

• From butter, a metonymic occupational surname for a dairyman or seller of butter.
• From Old French butor (“bittern”), a nickname for someone who resembled a bittern, perhaps because of his voice.
• Borrowed from Dutch and German Butter, possibly a short form of various compound names.

Proper noun

Butter (plural Butters)

1. A surname.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Butter is the 39164^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 562 individuals. Butter is most common among White (72.95%) and Black/African American (10.14%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Butter”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 1, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 262.

German

Etymology

From Middle High German buter, butter, from Old High German butera, from Proto-West Germanic *buterā (“butter”).

Though originally feminine, the word became masculine throughout Upper German and in southern dialects of West Central German. The now established feminine gender is East Central German, reinforced by Middle Low German boter f.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʊtɐ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊtɐ

Noun

Butter f (genitive Butter, no plural) or
Butter (dialectal) m (strong, genitive Butters, no plural)

1. butter

   Synonym: (Switzerland) Anke

Usage notes

• In the formal standard language, Butter is exclusively feminine. Masculine use is sometimes adopted from local dialects into colloquial German, especially in Swabia.

Declension

Declension of Butter [sg-only, feminine]

	singular
	indef.	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Butter
genitive	einer	der	Butter
dative	einer	der	Butter
accusative	eine	die	Butter

Declension of Butter [sg-only, masculine (dialectal), strong]

	singular
	indef.	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Butter
genitive	eines	des	Butters
dative	einem	dem	Butter
accusative	einen	den	Butter

Hyponyms

• Almbutter
• Bauernbutter
• Bratbutter
• Büffelbutter
• Erdnussbutter
• Fassbutter
• Halbfettbutter
• Halligbutter
• Kakaobutter
• Käsereibutter
• Knoblauchbutter
• Kochbutter
• Kräuterbutter
• Lagerbutter
• Landbutter
• Maibutter
• Markenbutter
• Molkereibutter
• Pfefferbutter
• Qualitätsbutter
• Rohmilchbutter
• Sahnebutter
• Salzbutter
• Sauerrahmbutter
• Schafsbutter
• Schokoladenbutter
• Sennereibutter
• Sommerbutter
• Süßrahmbutter
• Trüffelbutter
• unterbuttern
• Vorzugsbutter
• Ziegenbutter

 

Derived terms

• butterartig
• buttern

 

Related terms

• Butterblume
• Butterbrett
• Butterbrot
• Buttercreme
• Butterersatz
• Buttererzeugung
• Butterfahrt
• Butterfärben
• Butterfass
• Butterfleck
• Butterherstellung
• Butterkäse
• Bütterken
• Butterkorn
• Butterkuchen
• Buttermacher
• Buttermacherin
• Buttermesser
• Buttermilch
• Butternacht
• Butterpäckchen
• Butterprüfung
• Buttersäure
• Butterschleuder
• Butterschmalz
• Butterschrank
• Butterspeck
• Butterverordnung

 

Descendants

• → Esperanto: butero
  • → Ido: butro
• → Macedonian: путер (puter)
• → Serbo-Croatian: pȕter / пу̏тер
• → Slovene: púter (tonal orthography)
• → Lower Sorbian: butra

Further reading

• “Butter” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Butter” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Butter” in Duden online
• Butter on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de

Hunsrik

Etymology

From Middle High German buter, from Old High German butira, from Proto-West Germanic *buterā, borrowed from Latin būtȳrum, borrowed from Ancient Greek βούτῡρον (boútūron), from βοῦς (boûs) + τυρός (turós).

Cognate with German Butter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈputa/
• Rhymes: -uta
• Syllabification: But‧ter

Noun

Butter f

1. (uncountable) butter

   Ich esse Brod mit Butter.

   I eat bread with butter.