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Glite Dictionary
witches' butter

witches' butter

9.9
A yellow jelly fungus that grows on rotting wood and looks like lumps of butter
  • noun
  • /ˈwɪtʃɪz ˈbʌtər/
translation icon : mantequilla de bruja
  • The bright yellow color of witches' butter makes it stand out on decaying wood.

Examples

  • -WINIFRED: Witch's butter...

    Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

  • After a heavy rain, clusters of witches' butter appeared on the fallen branches.

  • Head of a lover, witch's butter, Aralia berry juice, and a petrified spider, I guess.

    Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

  • Some hikers enjoyed spotting witches' butter on their nature walks through the forest.

Synonyms

Tremella lutescens
vswitches' butter
  • Specialized
9.9

A yellow, jelly-like fungus that grows on dead wood

is a common descriptive name that highlights buttery appearance rather than scientific classification

Surface Forms

witches' butter singular
witches' butters plural

Morphology

witches' + butter

The phrase combines 'witches'' and 'butter' in a folk-name formation that does not compositionally indicate a fungus; a B1 learner who knows 'witch' and 'butter' would more likely imagine magical or edible butter rather than a yellow, jelly-like fungus. Although 'butter' can hint at the appearance (yellow, soft), that superficial cue is not enough to predict the biological, non-food referent, so the overall meaning is not derivable from the parts.

Etymology

The name witches' butter comes from the fungus's bright yellow, jelly-like lumps that look like butter on rotten wood. People long ago thought these odd blobs were 'left by witches', so the name now means the yellow jelly fungus you find on decaying logs.