ArticlesThe sign at the butchery advertised “Butterflyed Chicken”.
I smiled to myself wryly, and thought: That should say “Butterflied Chicken’- no, wait… “Butterflown Chicken”… err… maybe it should be “Butterflyed” after all.
Wikipedia currently agrees with the butcher.
However, Google ranks it Butterflied > Butterflown > Butterflyed. Google seems to have been influenced by proper noun versions of the verb version of the noun.
Just an observation; no punchline.
In researching this, I found the folk etymology for butterfly that I was told when I was a child – that it is a spoonerism for “flutter by” – is not correct. It was always unlikely, but it would have been nice if it was true.
Comment by Julian on October 21, 2008
Turns out I wasn’t finished thinking about this.
What if, after your butterflew your chicken, you sautéd it?
Would it be butterfried butterflied chicken?
Comment by Alan Green on October 21, 2008
Ouch!
Please write one hundred times: “I will not verb nouns.”
Comment by Aristotle Pagaltzis on October 21, 2008
Verbing weirds language.