Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUT'TER, n. [Sax. buter, butera; D. boter; Ger. butter; L. butyrum; Gr. βουτυρον.]

An oily substance obtained from cream or milk by churning. Agitation separates the fat or oily part of milk from the thin or serous part, called butter-milk. Butter, in the old chimistry, was applied to various preparations; as, Butter of antimony, now called the sublimated muriate of antimony, and made by distilling a mixture of corrosive sublimate and the regulus. Butter of arsenic, sublimated muriate of arsenic, made by a like process. Butter of bismuth, sublimated muriate of bismuth. Butter of tin, sublimated muriate of tin. Butter of zink, sublimated muriate of zink. – Fourcroy. Butter of cacao, is an oily concrete white matter obtained from the cacao nut, made by bruising the nut and boiling it in water. – Nicholson. Butter of wax, the oleaginous part of wax, obtained by distillation, and of a butyraceous consistence. – Nicholson.