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June 7 Information
Use of "buttery" out of control
When did people start using "buttery" to describe everything from iOS interfaces to the feel of comfortable shoes? It's driving me batty. Can anyone explain where this came from, who is responsible, and where I can contact their manager?
Viriditas (
talk)
01:37, 7 June 2024 (UTC)reply
You haven't heard everyone using the word? You're lucky. In the context of footwear, it means "soft" or "smooth", having the qualities of butter. In terms of touch interfaces, it refers to the "buttery scroll" of iOS, such as inertial or momentum scrolling.
Viriditas (
talk)
02:11, 7 June 2024 (UTC)reply
It might not be hip! First heard boomers using it in 2016. Now, I hear people using it more. It might just be an old term resurrected from the past.
Viriditas (
talk)
03:13, 7 June 2024 (UTC)reply
In the "Coffee Talk" sketches on the TV show Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s, Mike Myers played a stereotypical New York Jewish woman who used Yiddish phrases and Jewish expressions. One of his catchphrases was describing something as being "like butter", not in reference to any physical attribute, but seemingly just as a generic positive adjectival phrase. It was the first time I'd heard this usage and assumed it was a phrase common in Jewish culture, perhaps the translation of a Yiddish expression.
CodeTalker (
talk)
18:50, 8 June 2024 (UTC)reply
Its use to describe a tactile sensation is rather remote from the gustatory one in wine tasting (and
beer tasting, where it is also used in reference to both taste and
mouthfeel). I suggest that it arises naturally from the 'draggy lubrication' feel or consistency of butter, referenced in the long-established term 'buttery smooth'. In this sense, the OED cites uses dating back as far as 1719. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195}
188.220.136.217 (
talk)
22:47, 7 June 2024 (UTC)reply
Yes, it can mean "A room for keeping food or beverages; a storeroom" or, in the UK, "a room in a university where snacks are sold." There was one at the University of Nottingham, in the basement of the Trent Building, I seem to recall.
Martinevans123 (
talk)
22:43, 8 June 2024 (UTC)reply
That word is etymologically unrelated to "butter" or the adjective "buttery" derived from "butter". The noun "buttery" ultimately dervies from Latin "butta" meaning a cask or bottle. The OED says the noun "buttery" is "< (i) Anglo-Norman boterie, boterei, botrie, buterie, butteri (1374 or earlier), and its etymon (ii) post-classical Latin buteria, buttaria (frequently from 12th cent. in British sources) < butta cask, bottle (see butt n.4) + ‑ria ‑ry suffix."
CodeTalker (
talk)
23:15, 8 June 2024 (UTC)reply
This question is difficult to answer, because there are many aspects to it.
Mastering correct spelling and grammar is important, but there is so much more to good writing. A sentence or paragraph may be written with impeccably correct spelling and grammar, but express its idea in such a muddled or convoluted way that a reader will not understand it. Being clear is at least as important as spelling and grammar. Read and reread what you have written and ask, Does this clearly express the idea or information I want to convey? Is there perhaps another interpretation of these words, not the one I mean to convey? Are there superfluous words, words that can be left out while leaving the meaning unchanged? In general, keeping it simple and straightforward is the best.
Then there is the audience. Who will read the report? The tone of writing should be adjusted to the purpose of the report. An informal trip report of an excursion to the foot of a mountain for a travel blog will be very different, not only in content but also in style, from a
scientific report of a geological survey of the same area. Our article
Report gives a list of various kinds of reports in the section
Report § Types. The same article gives a general but useful overview of the typical
structure of a report. If you are going to write a report, try to find other reports of a similar nature and study their composition.
Writing a good report requires that you know what it is you want to say. Concentrate on what is essential. Something that is not essential may become a distraction, and then it is better to leave it out. Sometimes it helps to write the "Conclusions" section first. Material that is irrelevant to the conclusions can be omitfed from the report.
If there is a lot of material that should go into the report, one way of organizing this material is to use separate slips of paper for each thing you want to say. Then sort these slips on a table or other flat surface to bring related things together. You will then have a small number of heaps, which will become subsections or paragraphs in the report. Often, you can sort the slips in a heap into an order of presentation in the report. Likewise with the heaps themselves; some should go into the report before some others.
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a
transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
current reference desk pages.
June 7 Information
Use of "buttery" out of control
When did people start using "buttery" to describe everything from iOS interfaces to the feel of comfortable shoes? It's driving me batty. Can anyone explain where this came from, who is responsible, and where I can contact their manager?
Viriditas (
talk)
01:37, 7 June 2024 (UTC)reply
You haven't heard everyone using the word? You're lucky. In the context of footwear, it means "soft" or "smooth", having the qualities of butter. In terms of touch interfaces, it refers to the "buttery scroll" of iOS, such as inertial or momentum scrolling.
Viriditas (
talk)
02:11, 7 June 2024 (UTC)reply
It might not be hip! First heard boomers using it in 2016. Now, I hear people using it more. It might just be an old term resurrected from the past.
Viriditas (
talk)
03:13, 7 June 2024 (UTC)reply
In the "Coffee Talk" sketches on the TV show Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s, Mike Myers played a stereotypical New York Jewish woman who used Yiddish phrases and Jewish expressions. One of his catchphrases was describing something as being "like butter", not in reference to any physical attribute, but seemingly just as a generic positive adjectival phrase. It was the first time I'd heard this usage and assumed it was a phrase common in Jewish culture, perhaps the translation of a Yiddish expression.
CodeTalker (
talk)
18:50, 8 June 2024 (UTC)reply
Its use to describe a tactile sensation is rather remote from the gustatory one in wine tasting (and
beer tasting, where it is also used in reference to both taste and
mouthfeel). I suggest that it arises naturally from the 'draggy lubrication' feel or consistency of butter, referenced in the long-established term 'buttery smooth'. In this sense, the OED cites uses dating back as far as 1719. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195}
188.220.136.217 (
talk)
22:47, 7 June 2024 (UTC)reply
Yes, it can mean "A room for keeping food or beverages; a storeroom" or, in the UK, "a room in a university where snacks are sold." There was one at the University of Nottingham, in the basement of the Trent Building, I seem to recall.
Martinevans123 (
talk)
22:43, 8 June 2024 (UTC)reply
That word is etymologically unrelated to "butter" or the adjective "buttery" derived from "butter". The noun "buttery" ultimately dervies from Latin "butta" meaning a cask or bottle. The OED says the noun "buttery" is "< (i) Anglo-Norman boterie, boterei, botrie, buterie, butteri (1374 or earlier), and its etymon (ii) post-classical Latin buteria, buttaria (frequently from 12th cent. in British sources) < butta cask, bottle (see butt n.4) + ‑ria ‑ry suffix."
CodeTalker (
talk)
23:15, 8 June 2024 (UTC)reply
This question is difficult to answer, because there are many aspects to it.
Mastering correct spelling and grammar is important, but there is so much more to good writing. A sentence or paragraph may be written with impeccably correct spelling and grammar, but express its idea in such a muddled or convoluted way that a reader will not understand it. Being clear is at least as important as spelling and grammar. Read and reread what you have written and ask, Does this clearly express the idea or information I want to convey? Is there perhaps another interpretation of these words, not the one I mean to convey? Are there superfluous words, words that can be left out while leaving the meaning unchanged? In general, keeping it simple and straightforward is the best.
Then there is the audience. Who will read the report? The tone of writing should be adjusted to the purpose of the report. An informal trip report of an excursion to the foot of a mountain for a travel blog will be very different, not only in content but also in style, from a
scientific report of a geological survey of the same area. Our article
Report gives a list of various kinds of reports in the section
Report § Types. The same article gives a general but useful overview of the typical
structure of a report. If you are going to write a report, try to find other reports of a similar nature and study their composition.
Writing a good report requires that you know what it is you want to say. Concentrate on what is essential. Something that is not essential may become a distraction, and then it is better to leave it out. Sometimes it helps to write the "Conclusions" section first. Material that is irrelevant to the conclusions can be omitfed from the report.
If there is a lot of material that should go into the report, one way of organizing this material is to use separate slips of paper for each thing you want to say. Then sort these slips on a table or other flat surface to bring related things together. You will then have a small number of heaps, which will become subsections or paragraphs in the report. Often, you can sort the slips in a heap into an order of presentation in the report. Likewise with the heaps themselves; some should go into the report before some others.