pilipala

pilipala = butterfly in Welsh

If I was to choose one thing with the greatest number of beautiful, exotic, fascinating and sometimes mind-boggling translations, it would definitely be “butterfly”.

Think about the English name. How “butter” got into “butterfly”? Some say that the name originally applied to yellow butterflies. Others maintain that it is because those insects feed on milk and butter. There are also people who say butterflies excrete butter-like substance.

The Dutch call it “vlinder”. You may say “Nothing special” but imagine that they used to call it “boterschijte” – literally “butter shitter”.

In Cornish you have “tykki Duw” (God’s pretty thing)

Some languages compare butterflies to birds. Like Danish & Norwegian “sommerfugl” (summer bird).

Finally there is a festival of amazing words from around the world:
kupu-kupu in Balinese
пеперуда {peperuda} in Bulgarian
alibangbang, kabakaba in Cebuano
ⵉⴱⵍⵉⵍⵍⵉ {iblilli} in Central Atlas Tamazight
nipwisipwis in Chuukese
balabalaa in Gamilaraay
pulelehua in Hawaiian
olookolombooka in Igbo
lumbembambemba in Kongo
libālabā in Livonian
bulubulu in Luba-Kasai
ɔsámpúrimpúri in Maasai
copo-copo in Macanese
kalidrungudrungulj in Paiwan
borboleta in Portuguese
mariavolavola in Sardinian
bươm bướm in Vietnamese
cinci-maɭu-maɭu in Warlpiri
buuja-buuja in Wiradhuri
labalábá in Yoruba
and many many more.

Photo by @lukaszdaciuk (Instagram)

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