West Frisian

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Etymology

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Unknown. Perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fî-faldrôn (flying, folding), from *fifaldǭ (butterfly). If so, related to Faroese firvaldur and German Falter.[1][2]

Probably related to Dutch vlinder and Middle English flindre; also compare Albanian flutur (butterfly).

Noun

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flinter c (plural flinters, diminutive flinterke)

  1. butterfly

Further reading

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  • flinter”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

References

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  1. ^ Dumitrescu, Ioana (2014): The Butterfly Effect on Languages
  2. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “fifaldra”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 140