indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Meaning & History
1. English: nickname for someone with some fancied resemblance to a bittern, perhaps in the booming quality of the voice, from Middle English, Old French butor ‘bittern’ (a word of obscure etymology). 2. English and German: metonymic occupational name for a dairyman or seller of butter, from Old English butere ‘butter’, Middle High German buter. 3. German: possibly a short form of any of the various compound names formed with Butter ‘butter’ (see 2).