noun, masculine/bu.tɔ̃/plural: boutons
button; bud; pimple, spot, zit
Inherited from Middle French bouton, boton, from Old French bouton, boton (“button, bud”), from Vulgar Latin *bautōnem, accusative of bautō, from Frankish *bautō (“that which pushes up, bump, knob”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan (“to beat, push”). By surface analysis, bouter (“to push”) + -on. Cognate with Old High German bōzo (“bundle, flaxbundle”), Old Saxon bōto (“bunch or bundle of flaxs”). Compare Italian bottone, Spanish botón, which are borrowings of the French word.