Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to strike."

It forms all or part of: abut; baste (v.3) "beat with a stick, thrash;" battledore; beat; beetle (n.2) "heavy wooden mallet;" botony; boutonniere; butt (n.1) "thick end;" butt (v.) "strike with the head;" buttocks; button; buttress; confute; halibut; rebut; refute; sackbut; turbot.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin *futare "to beat" (in compounds); Old English beadu "battle," beatan "to beat," bytl "hammer, mallet."

mid-13c., "to end at, to border on, touch at the end," from Old French aboter, abuter "join end to end, touch with an end" (13c.), and abouter "join end to end," from à "to" (see ad-) + boter, bouter "to strike, push," from a Germanic source (ultimately from PIE root *bhau- "to strike"). Compare butt (v.). Related: Abutted; abutting.

late 13c., singular of buttocks (q.v.).

"narrow-necked hollow vessel for holding and carrying liquids," mid-14c., originally of leather, from Old French boteille (12c., Modern French bouteille), from Vulgar Latin *butticula (source also of Spanish botella, Italian bottiglia), diminutive of Late Latin buttis "a cask," which is perhaps from Greek.

In reference to a baby's feeding bottle by 1848 (sucking-bottle is attested from 1844). The bottle, figurative for "liquor," is from 17c. Bottle-washer is from 1837; bottle-shop is from 1929; bottle-opener as a mechanical device is from 1875. Bottle-arsed was old printers' slang for type wider at one end than the other.

1750, "to butt," apparently a corruption of butt (v.) by influence of buck (n.1). Figuratively, of persons, "to resist, oppose," 1857.

1825, "to strike with the head or horns" (of a goat or calf); perhaps an alteration of butt (v.) with a goat in mind, or a survival from Middle English bounten "to leap back, return" (early 15c., perhaps from a variant of Old French bondir; see bound (v.2)). As a baseball term from 1889. Also compare punt (v.). Related: Bunted; bunting.

a jocular name for one who cuts into a line, etc., 1902, American English, from verbal phrase butt in (see butt (v.)) + surname ending based on Eastern European names. Butt-in (n.) "person who butts in" is attested from 1906. Compare Amsterdam.

"thick end," 1580s," from butt (n.1) + end (n.). Meaning "the mere end," without regard to thickness, is from 1590s.

"the two protuberances which form the rump in men and animals," c. 1300, probably from Old English buttuc "end, short piece of land," from Proto-Germanic *butaz, from PIE root *bhau- "to strike," thus related to butt (n.1).

also headbutt, 1935, from head (n.) + butt (n.5). As a verb, by 1946. Related: Head-butting (1917 as a noun).