What is the name of this beauty in Greek and English?

7 comments

1. πεταλούδα (petaloúda)

   The tone on the letter u signifies the emphasis put in “ou” so it is PetalOUda.

   Also, the letter “d” is read as “th” in Greek. Therefore, the correct pronunciation of the word would be petalOUtha.

2. That’s Jim. There’s no “J” sound in Greek though, so when you hear his name spoken in Greek it sounds like Tzim

3. Moth/νυχτοπεταλούδα; I’m not really sure what this is so this is just a guess

4. πάττερφλάι

5. For the daytime kind it’s butterfly in English and petaloUtha in Greek. The Th- sound is like in this, there, that etc.

   For the nighttime kind it’s moth in English and nichtopetalouda in Greek. Literally night butterfly. Greeks also use a word for moths although they think it is used only for one species which is wrong. It is used for all of them. The word is SkOros. Though it is used only for the moth that destroys you clothes in the closet it is actually the whole night butterflies that it is used for scientifically.

   Bonus point: ancient Greeks used to call them Psyches (souls). From this we got the the word ψυχανθή psichanthi (th- sound like therian) (soul/butterfly looking flowers) which is used for the legumes family, because their flowers look like butterflies.

   Edit : obviously not all legumes. Just most of the ones known at that time.

6. It’s a butterfly

7. Looks like a cabbage white butterfly (Latin name Pieris rapae). I am not sure of the Greek translation. It is not a moth – wings of a butterfly tend to go up, wings of a moth lie flat.