Falter

Meaning

1. (masculine, strong) A lepidopteran; an insect of the order Lepidoptera (i.e., a butterfly or moth)
2. (masculine, strong) imago of an insect of the order Lepidoptera

Concepts

butterfly

🦋

folder

moth

butterflies

Falter

butterflies and moths

Synonyms

Schmetterling

🦋

Motte

Nachtfalter

Schmetterlinge

Schuppenflügler

Tagfalter

🦋

Translations

farfalla

🦋

mariposa

🦋

papillon

🦋

vlinder

🦋

kapel

πεταλούδα

borboleta

🦋

kelebek

🦋

papilio

🦋

فراشة

🦋

papallona

🦋

pāpiliō

pelatînk

papalló

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈfaltɐ/

Etymology

Cognate with Dutch: vijfwouter

Cognate with Icelandic: fiðrildi

Cognate with Latin: papilio

In summary

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”).