papillon
Meaning
- butterfly
- someone brilliant, versatile and inconstant
- knot
- Ellipsis of écrou papillon.; wing nut, butterfly nut
- butterfly stroke
- (colloquial) parking ticket
- butterfly valve
Concepts
Lepidoptera
rhopalocera
butterfly moth
true butterfly
true butterflies
butterfly moths
Lepidopter
Synonyms
Frequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/pa.pi.jɔ̃/
Etymology
From Old French papeillon (12th c.), byform of paveillon, whence the modern doublet pavillon (“pavilion”). Both from Latin pāpiliōnem. The form with recovered -p- may be semi-learned, but has also been explained as a native development due to onomatopoeia. Another possibility would be influence by a hypothetical Old French *parpeillon, from Vulgar Latin *parpiliōnem (cf. Occitan parpalhon). The swimming sense is a semantic loan from English.
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