butterbox

Butterbox has a couple of meanings, both satisfyingly specific. Literally, it's a wooden container used to store or transport butter — the kind of old-fashioned crate you'd find at a country market. In certain US regional dialects, butterbox is also a folk name for the bufflehead duck, a small, stocky diving duck whose rounded shape apparently reminded someone of a butter container. It's the kind of quirky regional wildlife nickname that sounds made up until you look at a bufflehead and think, 'okay, yeah, that tracks.'