ผีเสื้อ

Thai

2: butterflies at Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand
3: yellow longnose butterflyfish

Etymology

ผี (pǐi, “spirit”) +‎ เสื้อ (sʉ̂ʉa, “tutelar”).

As for the second sense, the insects got their name due to the old belief that they embody ancestral or tutelar spirits.[1]

As for the third sense, the fish got their name probably due to their appearance or colours that look like butterflies.

Pronunciation

Orthographicผีเสื้อ
pʰ ī e s ụ̄ ˆ ɒ
Phonemicผี-เสื้อ
pʰ ī – e s ụ̄ ˆ ɒ
RomanizationPaiboonpǐi-sʉ̂ʉa
Royal Institutephi-suea
(standard) IPA(key)/pʰiː˩˩˦.sɯa̯˥˩/
Audio

Noun

ผีเสื้อ • (pǐi-sʉ̂ʉa)

  1. (classifier ตน) tutelar spirit.
  2. (zoology) (classifier ตัว) butterfly: insect of the order Lepidoptera.
  3. (zoology) (classifier ตัว) butterflyfish: fish of the family Chaetodontidae, except โนรี (noo-rii), Heniochus spp.

Derived terms

References

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.