Etymology for the phrase "butterflies in stomach"


How did the phrase "butterflies in stomach" originate or what is the story behind this phrase?



Answer



Under the definition ‘A fanciful name (usually plural) used of the fluttering sensations felt before any formidable venture, especially in . . . butterflies in the stomach’, the Oxford English Dictionary provides this as its earliest recorded use, in 1908, of the expression:



The three o'clock train going down the valley . . . gave him a sad feeling, as if he had a butterfly in his stomach.



The plural form doesn’t occur until 1944:



There was no electrical response to the movement of that firmly gentle hand, no butterflies on the backbone.



Only in 1955 does the expression as we know it today appear:



With butterflies in her stomach . . . she ascended the pretentious flight of dirty marble steps.



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