butt chain (butchan)

In harne , a short chain attached at one end to the leather tug, and at the other to the swingle-tree. E. Н. Knight. IMG:content-2810.jpg:[blocks in formation] butter2 (but'er), n. [ butt1 + -er1.] One who or that which butts; an animal that butts. butter3 (but'er), n. [ butt2 , v. t., 2, + -er1.] A machine for sawing off the ends of boards, to square them and remove faulty parts. butter4+, n. An obsolete form of bittern . Com- pare butter bump . butterőt, n. [Only in ME. form bitter , bit , bitte (see butt3 ), + er1.] One who has charge butte (but), n. [F., a rising ground, a mound, orig. a butt to shoot at: see butt2 .] A conspicuof a butt or fire-bucket. See butt3 , n., 1. ous hill or mountain, especially one that at butter-ale (but'er-al), n. tracts attention by its isolation, or serves as a landmark: a name a applied in the regions abouter-and- the upper Mi ouri and west to the Pacific, butter-and-eggs (but'er-and-egz'), ), n. 1. The Same as buttered ale (which see, under butter1 , v. t.). Thus, the "Three Buttes " were a conspicuous landmark for emigrants to Oregon. One of the highest and grandest double-flowered variety of Narci us aurantius mountains in the United States, Mount Shasta, was in the early days of Californian emigration known to the Ameri- cans almost exclusively Shasta Butte callther prom i: nent peaks in California are still buttes, as Downieville Buttes, Marysville Buttes, etc. This use of the word butte, now gradually disappearing from the region in question, is a relic of French occupancy of Northwest, of the subsequent wide distribution through that region of the Hudson's Bay Company's employees, most of whom were of French extraction. The word was picked up by overland emigrants and carried to the furthest West; and it has been much used as a place name, alone or in combination.