Origin of the word for butterfly bươm bướm

[Philip Lean]

I am reasearch some words that may have come from Vietnamese or have gone into Vietnamese from other languages.

I am trying to find out when the word for butterfly bươm bướm came into use.

As I understand to the word that was use previously was điệp"

[Baristan]

I am reasearch some words that may have come from Vietnamese or have gone into Vietnamese from other languages.

I am trying to find out when the word for butterfly bươm bướm came into use.

As I understand to the word that was use previously was điệp"

exactly it's "Hồ Điệp".

[Philip Lean]

Yes, Hồ Điệp

Yes, I think from the Chinese word for butterfly - Hu Die

I am looking for the origins of bươm bướm to see if bươm bướm it is an original Vietnamese word , in which case it might have travelled to other languages in the region.

[Baristan]

so i can't help you about this matter...im sorry...

[The Interpreter]

the two western languages that have the most influence in the Vietnamese language are French and Portuguese. The closest I can think of is borboleta in Portuguese. "borbo" does sound close to bươm bướm phonetically. I'm just guessing but I would like to know what you find out.