Who Put the Butter in Butterfly?... And Other Fearless Investigations Into Our Illogical Language

by David Feldman, Kassie Schwan (Illustrator)

The English language is filled with familiar words that, when one thinks about them, are downright cooties, doozies, and heepie-jeebies; finks and funks; mugwumps and muumuus; deep six and cloud nine. There's only one pundit to solve these and other riddles of our spoken David Feildman, who in his bestselling Imponderables book and Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? has established himself as the unchallenged expert on answering and unanswerable. Word Imponderables have always been favorites with Feldman's legions of fans, and in Who Put the Butter in Butterfly? he gets to the source of all the mysteries surrounding our curious vocabulary. Why do we mid our Ps and Qs and not our Vs and Ws? Which Toms lent their names to Peeping Tom, Tom Collins, and tommy gun. How does a Weasel go "pop" -- and why for that matter? And who are the Joneses we're supposed to be keeping up with? Who Put the Butter in Butterfly? is a reference book you can't afford to be without. So don't beat around the bush , and don't wait until the eleventh hour to until the jig is up. This is compulsive reading for anyone incurable curious about the idiosyncrasies fo the language.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Language, Trivia, Humor, Linguistics, History

209 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

He holds a bachelor's degree in literature from Grinnell College, and a master's degree in popular culture from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He consults and lectures on the media. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Kim]

Interesting, though I'm not certain I would take every explanation literally. "Soda Jerk" as a derivation of alcohol jerk doesn't make much sense, but what I've heard before on food shows about the soda fountain person having to "jerk" the handle of the soda fountain to get it to come out properly. Always fun to think about work and phrase origins though. :)

[Christina]

I have several books on the origins of phrases, and am trying to decide which to keep and which to pass along to make space in my library. I read the first forty pages of this, and while Feldman dos a good job of making the subject interesting and lightly entertaining, this seems to be based on research from other books. Nothing wrong with that, but as I have several of those books as well, and I will only want to read so many books on this topic, I think I can let this one move on to a new home.

Verdict: Remove

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Included a bunch of questions that weren’t actually answered and some that are a stretch.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Some phrases I never heard of, but still it was interesting learning the phrases I have used or heard other people use. Some surprised me. For example, I thought people called the weed Dandelion because it has a poofy mane-like fluff for the head of the flower. However, it's actually because of it's jagged leaves that resemble lion's teeth. Yes, I enjoyed this book. There are a lot of phrases in here so I'm pretty sure this would require a re-read or two to be able to absorb the amount of information this book has.

[Wendi Enright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out interesting, but writing isn't that great, so it seemed flippant after awhile.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, fun read.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars.

This was an interesting and quick read. If you’re a curious language lover, you’ll definitely enjoy this! Plus, you pick up some great tidbits for cocktail parties.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I liked most about this book is that the variety of the word and phrase origins are all over the spectrum of topics and there are surprises in some of what I would have guessed wrong. Also, the individual words are written in short, sometimes only one paragraph, and easily digested chunks so putting it down and later picking it back up is never a problem as each topic stands on its own and you don't have to remember where the narrative was going. Great time filler read and, even though it is easy to put down from a practical standpoint, I actually wanted to keep going as much as possible. Everyone can learn something from this book.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love these kinds of books because I like to find the stories behind where words and phrases came from. This one however, I found very hard to relate to. Not only had I never heard half the phrases and words, but there was no personality to the explanations. They were very similar to reading a text book. It took me less than a day to read though, so if you're looking for a quick and easy read, this book would be a good choice! May I recommend Why Do Men Have Nipples if you''re looking for an enjoyable explanation book.

[Tori]

2005- One of the reviewers on Amazon.com I think correctly described this book as ""bathroom reading."" I agree wholeheartedly. The book reads like an encyclopedia more than anything else, and it's not recommended to read it in large sections (like I did) because you'll be bored quickly. Apparently its part of a series, and this one focused exclusively on language (Where did the term Peeping Tom come from? What does it mean to mind your Ps & Qs?, etc). I suppose if I read a few explanations every day while in the bathroom the novelty wouldn't have wore off so quickly. Probably a good bet for those word-lovers more than anyone else.

[Vivek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book! I do think that this book is somthing I would use for a reference. It is fun to read through the pages of this book as if it was a novel even though it was informational. It made lots of sense but it got quite boring when you got to the middle of the book where there were several long chapters talking about political words. But then you get to the fun words like "gobldygook" and "blurb." David Felderman has other good books like this that I will try to read soon.

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book full of fascinating etymology explanations, my only concern being there was little in the way of proof. He provided a small bibliography in the back. There were a few times he referenced, but did not cite, the OED. Some answers appeared to be write ins from people.

It was fun but a lot of information. You could tell it was written in 1950, which made it more fun in my opinion.

[Dini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filled with fun, trivial knowledge, which I love. Sadly some of the terms are quite outdated and new to me which made it difficult to associate. Nevertheless, this is a great book to read, especially if you like trivial facts like me.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series has answered many questions for me and prompted many more. It's truly fascinating and well written.

[Alex Seals · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good, little source to read up on different phrases that we use. I especially thought the origin of Peeping Tom was interesting!

[Julie Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

g read

[Janet Eshenroder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Light, easy read. It's fun information, and I remembered more of these than I initially thought I would. Some explanations I have less confidence in, though they show a certain logic.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting tidbit book. Great book to learn a few new things each day. Recommended

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good light reading for all ages