- butter
- O.E. butere "butter," general W.Gmc. (cf. O.Fris., O.H.G. butera, Ger. Butter, Du. boter), an early loan-word from L. butyrum "butter" (cf. It. burro, O.Fr. burre, Fr. beurre), from Gk. boutyron, perhaps lit. "cow-cheese," from bous "ox, cow" + tyros "cheese;" but this may 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. The verb is O.E. buterian; figurative meaning "to flatter lavishly" is from 1816. Butter-fingered is attested from 1610s.