Fly as in what birds and aeroplanes do, fly as in the insects, or fly as in “your fly is down”?
edit: I mean the word fly (as in its use in language), not the act of flying!
Fly as in what birds and aeroplanes do, fly as in the insects, or fly as in “your fly is down”?
edit: I mean the word fly (as in its use in language), not the act of flying!
Almost certainly fly as in birds came first. Trousers with a fly are a pretty recent fashion development, like within the last 200 years or so, whereas people have been watching birds since before the invention of language.
I agree. I also imagine fly for insects comes from abbreviating “flying bug” or something like that, so also came after the verb to fly.