Buttress comes from Old French (ars) bouterez ('thrusting arch'), from bouter ('to thrust, push'), of Germanic origin, related to butt. The historical trail runs through bouterez in Old French and bouter in Old French. Used as a noun and verb, buttress now means "a support projecting from a wall; to reinforce or strengthen", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as buttressing and buttressed and related forms such as butt and abut. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.