button 1
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Searchable Lemmata: boton (AN), boto (L), botonus (L), botoun (ME), botwm (W), button (OScots), buttoun (OScots), button (MdE).
Alternate Forms: boten, bothom, botun, button, buttoun, butun, botwm, bwtwm, bwtwn.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1(n.)
Accessory;
ornamental knob, stud or button on a garment, object or furnishing; in particular, a knob or stud of metal or other material sewn by a shank or neck to articles of dress, usually for the purpose of fastening one part of the dress to another by passing through a button-hole, but often merely for ornament.
In process of use, the name has passed from the connotation of the shape to that of the purpose, and been extended to all appliances of the kind, a common type being a disc, quite flat, or slightly convex or concave, of metal, bone, glass, mother of pearl, paste, etc., perforated or otherwise adapted to be sewn on by its central part (this specific application is now regarded as the primary sense, all the other meanings, whatever their historical origin, being understood as merely transf.) Buttons occur only rarely in early medieval contexts and appear to have been introduced to North European clothing in the first half of the thirteenth century; at first they were mainly decorative and did not take much strain (eg on sleeve edges) and were placed right on the edge of the cloth. By the sixteenth century, when padded and tight garments put more strain on buttons (Arnold 1985), buttonholes were reinforced. [Crowfoot, E., F. Pritchard and K. Staniland (2000), p. 171]. Also see phrases and compounds such as cloth button, flat button.(circa 1180 still in current use)
5. ciclare: gerlandesges / ciclades: gerlondeches ... reticula: crespines, britilis, kellis, kalles, chales, gallis ... bulle: buttuns, botouns, botuns de or, botun, botons ... discriminalia: greve, anglice herbondes, grivurys, broches a greil ... nimbos: chapeus a plue ... murenule: cheyns
Gloss.
[AND TLL (ii 51) ante 1300]
7. Ac ynteu a erchis udunt hwy dangos Chyarlys idaw, ac a uenegis udunt y uot ef yn gennat y vrenhin nys carei ef o werth vn bwttwn
Historic.
[GPC YCM (44. 19-21) circa 1350]
10. ordinamus ... quod vestes hujusmodi ... sint clause desuper et inferius similiter, vel saltem absque botonis scisse seu aperte
Ecclesiastic/Regula.
[DMLBS Conc. (III 30) 1352]
12. A lace lapped aboute ... And so after þe halme halched ful ofte, Wyth tryed tasselez þerto tacched innoghe On botounz of þe bry3t grene brayden ful ryche.
Arthurian, Heroic, Poetic, Romance.
[MED Gawain ((Nero A.10) 219-220) circa 1400]
Sex: N/A Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, Old French boton, butoun (cf. AF boton). [OED, 2nd ed., 1989: 'The ultimate etymology is commonly supposed to be Teutonic; for conjectures see Diez, Scheler, Littré']. Boto, botonus appear in British Latin texts from c1240.
WF:
Etym Cog: bouton (MdFr), boton (MdSp), bottone (MdIt).
References:
Art and Illustration:
Scott, M. (2007)a, discusses the use of buttons for fitting garments in the middle of the fourteenth century and provides illustrations from manuscripts, p. 108.
