Falter

Meaning

(masculine,strong) an insect of the order Lepidoptera (i.e., a butterfly or moth)
(masculine,strong) imago of an insect of the order Lepidoptera

Hyphenated as

Fal‧ter

Gender

♂️ Masculine

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈfaltɐ/

Etymology

Haplology of dialectal German Feifalter, from Middle High German vīvalter, from Old High German fīfaltra, from Proto-Germanic *fifaldǭ, *fīfildǭ (“butterfly”), from Proto-Indo-European *peypel-. Cognate with Dutch vijfwouter, Icelandic fiðrildi, and outside Germanic Latin papilio. Folk-etymologically re-interpreted as Zweifalter, Pfeiffalter, etc., by association with unrelated falten (“to fold”).