Buttonhole

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈbʌtənˌhoʊl/

Definitions

1. A small slit or opening in fabric through which a fastener passes, or to stop someone and force them to listen to what you want to say
2. A narrow opening in cloth designed for a button's passage, or an act of detaining someone to express an urgent point of view
3. An opening in a garment intended for a button to fit through, also refers to the act of cornering someone to convey a message

Etymology: The button-hole began life as a "buttonhold," a loop of string or thread used to hold a button in place. The "hold" was the operative part: the loop gripped the button, and the name described what it did. Over time speakers reshaped the word to match the thing it now plainly was, a hole for a button to pass through, so "hold" gave way to "hole" by folk etymology. Few people hearing the word today would guess that the second half once referred to a fastening, not an opening. The compound itself is transparent: "button" plus "hole," which is why the older spelling looked like a mistake to later speakers. The shift shows how a word can keep its shape while its meaning drifts. The original loop was a loop that held; the modern slit is a hole that lets the button through, and the spelling followed the object rather than the function.

Synonyms: fastening, closure, loop, hole, slit