A medieval officer in a royal or noble household responsible for managing the wine cellar and serving drinks; also spelled 'butler'.
From Old French 'botellier', from 'bouteille' (bottle). The word describes someone who manages bottles and beverages, and the modern spelling 'butler' is simply a variant that became standard.
The word 'boteler' shows how language modernizes—we still have butlers today, but nobody spells it 'boteler' anymore. This 700-year spelling shift happened because English pronunciation changed but spelling tried to catch up inconsistently.
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