This paper analyzes the Russian lexeme бабочка, offering to interpret it as an onomatopoeic word, connected by means of reduplication to the dialectal бякать ‘to beat, to hit’. The paper also discusses the word белобрысый ‘tow-haired’, which is problematic from the point of view of etymology. Developing V. Orel’s hypothesis, the author offers to interpret this word as ‘covered with white; sprinkled with white’, connected to the interjection брысь ‘shoo’ and to the verb бросать ‘to throw’. The paper pays particular attention to the semantic and derivational aspects of the etymology of the word.