Re[2]: [tied] Scientist's etymology vs. scientific etymology

From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 59062
Date: 2008-06-05

At 2:57:58 PM on Thursday, June 5, 2008, Rick McCallister
wrote:

> --- "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>> At 8:51:55 AM on Thursday, June 5, 2008, Carl Hult
>> wrote:

[...]

>>> The first word, butter, may be a close call since the
>>> greeks actually had a word called boutyron, lit.
>>> "cowcheese" but I still feel that this is wishful
>>> thinking on the linguist's part. The greeks didn't use
>>> butter in the same way other people in Europe did and if
>>> ever, the greeks got this word from elsewhere, not
>>> giving it away to other languages. It may even be a folk
>>> etymology word in Greece, adapted to fit the notion of
>>> "cow cheese"

>> The chain from Gk. <boúturon> to Lat. <butyrum> to
>> e.g. OE <butere> looks pretty straightforward.

> He's not denying that.

Yes, he is.

> He saying that boúteron is a folk-etymology in Greek.

In the last sentence he suggests that that is a possibility;
before that he denies that the Gk. word is the source of
Engl. <butter>.

Brian