Where does “butterfingered” come from?
butterfingered (English) comes from English Butter, from English butt, from Middle English butten, from Anglo-Norman buter, from Old French boter, from Old French bouter, from Frankish bautan, from Proto-West Germanic bautan — to grow, swell; to swell, wax, grow; to blow; to...
butterfingered (English): Prone to dropping things; clumsy
Definitions
- Prone to dropping things; clumsy
Ancestry of “butterfingered”, step by step
butterfingered traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Butter
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Butter | A soft, fatty foodstuff made by churning the cream of milk (generally cow's milk) |
| 2 | English | butt | The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt... |
| 3 | Middle English | butten | — |
| 4 | Anglo-Norman | buter | to strike, finish |
| 5 | Old French | boter | to push, butt, strike; to strike; to push; thrust |
| 6 | Old French | bouter | to strike; to hit; to place; to put; to enter |
| 7 | Frankish | bautan | to push, strike, beat; to hit, strike; to hit,... |
| 8 | Proto-West Germanic | bautan | to beat |
| 9 | Proto-Germanic | bautaną | to beat, push |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰewd- | to hit, strike; to beat, push; to strike, push,... |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰew- | to grow, swell; to swell, wax, grow; to blow; to... |
via English fingered
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | fingered | simple past tense and past participle of finger;... |
| 2 | English | finger | A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other animals |
| 3 | German | Finger | finger |
| 4 | Middle High German | vinger | finger |
| 5 | Old High German | fingar | finger |
| 6 | Proto-West Germanic | fingr | finger |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | fingraz | finger |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | penkʷrós | — |