Button

How to spell button

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce button

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does button mean?

1. nounA small disc or knob sewn to clothing to fasten it, or a control that is pressed to operate a device.
2. verbTo fasten something with buttons.

Button in a sentence

• noun

  The top button on his shirt had come loose during the meeting.

• verb

  Remember to button your jacket before stepping into the cold.

• noun

  She pressed the green button to start the washing machine.

• verb

  He could not button the cuff with one hand.

Where does button come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the 1300s from the Old French bouton, which meant a knob, a stud, or a flower bud, and was itself drawn from the verb bouter, 'to push' or 'to thrust', a word the French had taken from a Germanic source. The original sense was something that pushes out or sticks out, which is why the same root describes both a budding plant and the rounded fastener that pushes through a slit of cloth. By the late Middle Ages the clothing sense was firmly established in English, and centuries later the word naturally extended to small knobs that are pressed on machines, then on telephones and computers. The double t in the middle is the spelling point worth fixing in memory: it preserves the short, clipped first syllable. Its French cousin still survives in 'bud' and in the boutique, since a boutique was originally just a little shop full of small wares.

How the word is built

• butt- (from Old French bouton, a bud or knob)
• -on (diminutive/noun ending)