蝴蝶

Meanings

Etymology

From Middle Chinese *ɦuo dep (first syllable unstressed), from Old Chinese *ɡaː l'eːb, derived from a proto-form of *kʰleːp ~ *ɦleːp, a prefixed form of the root *lep (“butterfly”), which was also the source of. * Tibetan ཕྱེ་མ་ལེབ (phye ma leb, “butterfly”) and * Burmese လိပ်ပြာ (lippra, “butterfly”). Variants of 胡蝶 / 蝴蝶, representing different developments from the proto-form, including disyllabification, fricativisation of the voiceless initial, etc.: : 蝶 (OC *l'eːb), 蜨 (OC *seːb), 胡蜨 / 蝴蜨 (OC *ɡaː seːb), 蛺蝶 (OC *keːb l'eːb), 蛺蜨 (OC *keːb seːb). There are different theories regarding the original meaning of the root *lep: * Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ljap (“thin; flat; flat object”), represented by the phonetic element 枼 (OC *leb) in Chinese. Related to 葉 (OC *hljeb, *leb, “leaf”), 牒 (OC *l'eːb, “official document < plank”), Tibetan ལེབ་ལེབ (leb leb, “flat; level”), ལེབ་མོ (leb mo, “flat”) and Burmese လှပ် (hlap, “thin”). See 枼 for more. * Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-ljap (“lightning; flash; glitter”) (Matisoff, 2003), whence also 燁 (OC *ɢʷab, *ɢʷɯb, “gleaming”), 熠 (OC *ɢrub, *lub, “flashing”) and Burmese လျှပ် (hlyap, “(of light) to strike; to shine; lightning”). Compare Malay kerlap (“to flash; to glisten, as the wings of flying butterflies”), and Tagalog kislap ("to sparkle"). Alternatively, Sun (1999) proposes that 蝴蝶 is a fission reduplication of two cognate bases, the former being more likely: * 挾 (OC *ɡeːb, “to press from both sides; to carry something under one's arms”), alluding to the flapping motion of the butterfly's wings, or * 夾 (OC *kreːb, “pincers”), from the way the butterfly holds its wings erect when not flying. Compare Proto-Austronesian *kali-, *qali- (prefix for words with a sensitive reference to the spirit world, including “butterfly”).

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Stroke order

Components

Components from cjk-decomp · MIT

Characters

Example sentences

• 蝴蝶飛走了。

  The butterfly flew away.

• 蝴蝶的寿命短。

  The life span of a butterfly is short.

• 我抓到一隻漂亮的蝴蝶。

  I caught a beautiful butterfly.

Sentences from Tatoeba · CC-BY 2.0 FR

More examples & usage (AI)

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Related words