I fnd it very interesting that the Tagalog "paruparó" or "paru-paro" is similar to the Hebrew "parpar." This could just be a coincidence. But in the pre-hispanic languages of the Philippines, consonants were inherently followed by a vowel sound, so a word like "parpar" would've either been pronounced as "para-para" (the 'a' pronounced like the 'u' in "up") or "paru-paru" (pre-hispanic Filipinos did not differentiate between 'o' and 'u'). In Maranao, the language of heavily Islamic Mindanao Island of the Philippines, the word for butterfly is "paroparo." Could our words for butterfly be related to the Hebrew "parpar," originating from the Afro-Asiatic language family? This is possible considering that pre-hispanic Philippines was made up of several dozen sultanates and the people throughout the islands wrote in a script that the Spaniards called "caracteres moriscos" due to the fact the it came from the Tagalog Muslims of Manila. Or perhaps it's one of many Tagalog words borrowed from Sanskrit or Tamil.
I did a search and discovered this interesting bit of information:
Aramaic: "parr" - flee
Arabic: "farra" - flee (butterfly - "farashka", "Abu Daqeek", "fartattu" [Tunisia], "farfett" [Malta])
Beja (Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt): "far" - jump, hop
Persian: "parr-" - to fly', "parr" - wing (butterfly - "parvani")
Sanskrit: "parna" - feather
Tamil: "para" - to fly, hover, flutter
Gilyak (Siberia, Sakhalin Islands): "parpar" - to fly, hover about
Khmer: "par" – to fly
In Afrikaans
skoenlapper (litt. skoen = shoe, to *lap* something is to patch it - so the word basically means someone who patches shoes)
also called a vlinder
BTW a socialite in Afrikaans is a *sosiale vlinder* (litt. social butterfly)
This is the English word "butterfly" translated into other languages -
Afrikaans: skoenlapper
Albanian flutur
Amharic: burabiro
Arabic: farasha
Arabic, Algerian bu frtutu
Baagandji: bilyululijga
(New South Wales, Australia)
Bambura: dimago
Basque: txipilota, pinpilinpauxa
Bengali: prajapathi
Bulgarian peperuda
Buli (Gur language in N. Ghana): kpalo?
Byelorussian matylok
Cantonese: woo deep
Cape Verdean Criolu: gorgoleta
Cheyenne: hevavahkema
Czech: mot�l
Dagon: peplim (pee plim�)
Danish sommerfugl,
(N. Jutland) sommerflue,
(S. Jutland) skurvefugl
Djingli: marlimarlirni
(Australian N.T.)
Danish: sommerfugl [ = summer + bird ]
Dutch: vlinder
Estonian liblikas
Finnish: perhonen
French: papillon
Fulani: lilldeh
Gaelic: dear badan-de, seillean-de
German: Schmetterling
Greek: petalou'da
Gujarati: popti
Hausa: bude-littafi
Hawaiian: pulelehua
Hebrew: parpar
Hindi: titli
Hungarian: lepke (fig.), pillango (insect)
Icelandic: fithrildi
Indonesian kupu kupu
Irish: feileacan
Italian: farfalla
Japanese: choochoo
Javanese kupu
Kitaita: kifurute
Konni (Gur language in N. Ghana): kpanjabi?
Korean: navi
Kwara'�e: b�be
(a language of the Pacific)
Lan: fuf�
(another language on the
same island as Kwara'�e)
Lao: maingkabula
Latin: papilio
Latvian: tauri��
Lithuanian: peteli�k�
Luo oguyo
Lingala (Congo) mpornboli
Majang (Nilo-Saharan): bimbilo
Malay: kupukupu/ramarama
Mandarin: huudye
Maori pulelehua
Masai osampurumpuri
Mayi-Kulan (Queensland, Austr.) pardirr
Mekeo: fefe, fefe-fefe
(an Austronesian language of South East Papua)
Mekeo (West) pepeo
Motu (Papua): kau-bebe,
Nahuatl papalotl, huitzil
Navaho ho'o neno
Ngaju Dayak (Indonesia): kakupo
Norwegian: sommerfugl [ = summer + bird ]
Paiwan (native to Taiwan) kalidungudungul
Patois of St. Thomas zanimo
Persian: parvaneh
Polish: motyl
Portuguese: borboleta
Rumanian: fluturi
Russian: b�bochka
Senegalese lupe lupe
Serbo-Croatian: leptir
Setswana (Gabarone) serurubele
Shona: shavishavi
Sinhala samanalaya
Slovenian metulj
Sotho serurubele
Spanish: mariposa
Swahili: kipepeo
Swazi luvivane
Swedish: fj�ril
Tagalog: paruparo
Thai: pi sugnya
Tok Pisin (New Guinea) bataplai, bembe
Tiwi: kwarikwaringa
(Melville & Bathurst Islands, Australia)
Trukese: nipwisipwis
Tshiluba (Zaire): bulubulu
Turkish: kelebek
Vietnamese: bayboum
Welsh: pili pala/bili bala, glowyn byw,
iar fach yr haf,
plyfyn bach yr haf
Wik-Ngathan kalpakalpay
(W. Cape York Peninsula, Australia)
Xitchangani phapharati
(a Bantu language
of Mozambique)
Yoruba: labalaba
Zulu: uvevane
Are there any other languages you wish it to be translated into?
in Brazilian Portuguese it's panapaná, panapanã or borboleta; or lepidóptero (it's a technical word for a butterfly)
Yeah, it's borboleta in Portuguese Portuguese, too.
I think that the french 'papillon' is beautifull word, I rember that the dutch saying 'as light as a feather' is 'as light as a papillon' in french.
Norwegian and Danish word for Butterfly is: Sommerfugl. I like this one along with some others cause it makes me think of the word as 'Summer bug'.
The following is taken from this website:
http://www.aworldforbutterflies.com/etymology.htm
and don't worry :) This is the first and last time (I think) that I'll take up so much space like below here.
Butterfly Etymology
The etymology (not entomology, which is the study of insects but etymology, the study of word origins) of the many words that have been used to describe the diurnal-flying Lepidoptera is fascinating. As author and etymologist David Feldman once asked, “who put the butter in butterfly?” The English common name did originate from the relatively simple combination of “butter” and “fly,” there’s a written old English citation for buttorfleoge, but the literal origin is lost. Some sources have erroneously suggested that the excrement of butterflies is thought to resemble butter. The problem with this, of course, is that other than to void excess water, butterflies do not excrete! Caterpillars do because they are the active growing stage, although a simple consideration of what they eat will make you wonder why anyone would consider that it, commonly called frass, resembled butter! Intriguingly, the larvae of the Jamaican Mexican Fritillary, Euptoieta hegesia hegesia (Nymphalidae), when fed exclusively on the yellow flowers of their preferred host plant, Turnera ulmifolia (Turneraceae), do excrete yellow frass! When a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis it voids its last larval meal and the waste byproducts of metamorphosis in meconium, a fluid that is most often blood colored (which would lead one to “bloodfly” not “butterfly”).
More likely origins include considering the that males of the common brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni, Pieridae) of England are butter-colored, or that, as author Samuel Jackson suggested, butterflies and the churning of butter are the simultaneous harbingers of spring, or that the word derives from the old myth that witches and fairies stole butter in the night, in the form of butterflies. The first of these is probably the most likely explanation (I’m a firm believer in simple explanations) but there is some etymological evidence for the last. Regardless, the word – at least in English – is unique (see So, What's in a Name (below) for more information) although I find that it has posed some interesting problems. Think about this: its common to call birdwatchers “birders” but what would one call a butterflywatcher? A butterflier? I don’t think so. It sounds too much like a food fight to me. And I can’t say I’m particularly enamored of the alternatives, lepper or bugger, either! Any suggestions?
So, What’s in a Name?
Have you ever wondered what they call butterflies in languages other than English? I thought that I knew quite a few of them until I found this list! Here, for your amusement, education and edification, is what they call my favorite wondrous creature in other places…
Language Name for “butterfly”
African (Suto, Tswana , Pedi, Southern Sotho)
Serurubele (see-roo-roo-bear-lair)
Afrikaans
Skoenlapper
Albanian
Flutura
Amharic (Ethiopia)
Buraburay
Arabic
Abu Daqeek, Farasha
Bangla
Projapoti
Burmese
Lapia (spelling?)
Chinese (Mandarin)
Hu-tieh but Hu Die is the official modern pronounciation
Croatian
Leptir
Czech
Motýl
Danish
Sommerfugl
Dutch
Vlinder
Esperanto
Papilio
Estonian
Liblikas
Farsi. (Persian)
Parvani
Finnish
Perhonen
French
Papillion
Gaelic:
Irish
Scottish
Feileacan
Dearbadan-de ( first D is a soft gee sound and the DE is jay)
German
Schmetterling
Greek
Psyche (ancient)
Petaluodia (modern)
Gujarati
Patangeo
Hawaiian
Pulelehua
Hebrew
Parpar
Hindi
Titli
Hungarian
Lepke, Pillango
Icelandic
Fidrildi
Indonesian
Kupu-kupu
Inupiaq (Alaska native language)
Taqalukisaq
Italian
Farfalla
Japanese
Chou chou
Korean
Nabi
Kwanyama (border of Namibia and Angola)
Onanga
Lao
Meng kabeua
Latin
Papillio, Papilionis
Lithuanuian
Drugelis, Peteliske
Maori
Pepeke’
Marathi
Phulpakhru
Mayan
Pepen
Nahuatl (Aztec)
Papalotl
Nepali
Putali (long a)
Norwegian
Sommerfugl
Palauan
Bangikoi
Philippine
Visayan
Tagalog
Kabakaba
Paruparo
Polish
Motyl
Portugese
Borboleta
Romanian
Fluture
Russian
Babochka, Dushichka (dialect)
Serbo-Croatian
Meptir
Sign language
"interlock thumbs, flapping flat hands like wings"
Sinhala (Sri Lanka)
Samanalaya
Spanish
Mariposa
Swahili
Ki-pepeo, Kungu-urumu
Swazi (Swaziland)
Luvivane
Swedish
Fjäril
Tamil
Pattam puchi
Thai
Pee seur (spelling?)
Tigre (Ethiopia)
Tsenblale
Tok Pisin (aka Melanesian Pidgin)
Bataplai (short 'a's)
Turkish
Kelebek
Ukranian
Metelyk
Urdu'
Titli Urdu'
Vietnamese
Buom buom, Ho diep
Yiddish
Zomerfeygele, Flaterl
Yup'ik (Alaska native language)
Caqelngataq
!Xu (A 'Bushman' or San language of the Kalahari Desert)
Dhad'hama
Xhosa (Spoken mainly in the Eastern Cape)
Ibhabhathane
Zambia:
Lamba
Ila
Mukuni
Ici-pempele
Inkongolo, Sikapempenya
Limpempele
Zulu
Uvemvane
List compiled by, and reproduced courtesy of, J. Akers Pence, University of Florida, Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Oops, sorry! I meant to sign my post above under "Your name" as 'posts.'
Serbo-Croatian "leptir" (I've always liked the sound of this word) is a masculine word. There is also a feminine word - "leptirica", but I'm not really sure how to use it.
Well what about ladybird or ladybug? Does anyone have any suggestions why it is so in English? What about other languages?
Bubamara in my ancestral tongue
I believe the English word "butterfly" came about when the first English-speaking person to see one of these critters said, "I just saw something flutter by." Eventually the consonants got mixed up.
No, I really don't believe this, but I think "flutterby" would be a good name for a butterfly.
I believe and that's only my 2 cents that butterfly comes from batterfly
To batter = to beat again and again ( beat wings again and again=flutter fly)
How do you make butter? Beat milk again and again.
battle battalion battalfly
A ladybird/bug
Is a "Lieveheersbeestje" (Litt. A dear lord creature)