Butler (surname)
Butler is a surname that has been associated with many different places and people. It can be either:
- an English occupational name that originally denoted a servant in charge of the wine cellar, from the Norman French word butuiller. It eventually came to be used to describe a servant of high responsibility in a noble household, mostly leaving behind its association with the supply of wine.
- in Ireland, a noble family and dynasty
- a German surname, originating in Prussia before the 11th century, that gained notoriety in the High Middle Ages.
- an Anglicisation of the French surname Boutilier, Bouthillier, a cognate of the English name.
Read more about Butler (surname): Notable People With The Surname Butler
Famous quotes containing the word butler:
“Saint, do you weep? I hear amid the thunder
The Fenian horses; armour torn asunder;
Laughter and cries. The armies clash and shock,
And now the daylight-darkening ravens flock.
Cease, cease, O mournful, laughing Fenian horn!”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)