A nice squib on words for butterfly in different languages. Found this on the way to Googly Serendip. It's from the journal, Iconicity in Language which doesn't seem to be published any more. Pity that.

Thanks! That was a fascinating post you linked us to.

Of course, there were enough similarities to make me wonder about the etymology of the various terms - but just enough to hope that someone ELSE has done the research....

Bob

Bob, you thought there were similarities? I noted how different they all are, from fuf to osampurumpuri. Compare "butterfly" to "cat," and you can really see the difference.

Bob, you thought there were similarities? I noted how different they all are, from fuf to osampurump.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

Sorry - I guess I should have clarified. What I saw (and I'm too lazy to go back and look again) were scattered patterns of unrelated similarities.

However, I've been told that I see patterns where other people don't. So either I'm oddly brilliant, or just deranged. (Like a stove top that doesn't function correctly).

Bob