Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age

No, it's semantically linked via 'butter'. Schmetterling comes from Schmetten or Schmand which is a sort of heavy cream. There used to be a folk believe that butterflies would consume milk or butter if left uncovered. They were also sometimes called Milkdieb or milk-thief in German.

See: www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=butterfly

I think the papillon dog breed has big, butterfly-like ears!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepidopterology

I think this is mostly because Germans are generally taught RP, where it is pronounced /ˈskwɪɹəl/ (skwe-rel). The American /ˈskwɝl̩/ (skwerl with a very faint r) is considerably easier to pronounce for German speakers.

Because neither the English /w/ nor the English /ɹ/ exist in German and because they're both pronounced in close proximity to each other, the combination tends to be confusing to pronounce (as with combinations of th and s/z).

Can you pronounce "squirt"? If yes, try pronouncing the "squir" portion of the word, dropping the "t". You should be pronouncing it like this reference, minus that hard "t" sound at the end [0].

Can you pronounce the rare English word "rill"? It's of Germanic origin so you should be able to. You should be pronouncing it like this reference [1]

If yes to both of the above questions, you can pronounce "squirrel".

Say "squir" from squirt, take a pause for a half second, then say "rill". Repeat the phrase faster and faster trying to shorten the pause between the two.

Alternatively, you can approximate the word "squirrel" from the English word "quarrel" by adding an "s" to the beginning. "s" + "quarrel". There will be a subtle mispronunciation with this method, but you should be able to pass in most conversation.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CPhAx00d2Y

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyFuCgq03mg

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y21ZciKJA_I

"Care" I think is the closest monosyllabic equivalent. Diligence and attention to detail are specifically exhorted by "take care", and caution by "use care". Conversely, one may disclaim them all with "I don't care".

It's a short word and probably an old one, so it's heavily freighted with denotations and connotations alike, and finds much use outside this context. But if you want to say "conscientiousness" in fewer than five syllables - which is a sensible thing to want - then I think "care" must be the most accurate word with which to do so.

According to Wiktionary the xocolatl case is actually a bit uncertain (not much evidence of that word in use before 1750), and there are some competing theories that it was maybe related to the word for a stirring stick, or maybe descended from the Yucatec Maya word chocol (hot). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chocolate

The version I like is the Maya version from the south of Mexico, now called tascalate (not sure what the Maya name was, or exactly what the etymology is there – the “ate” part comes from the same Nahuatl word for water).

But that’s all sort of beside the point that the word chocolate (and cacao) are fairly recent words, which were spread rapidly around the world mostly from one source, so the name was adopted pretty much everywhere as a loanword, and doesn’t change too much between languages.

Starting in the early seventeen century, the Dutch played a dominant role in the early European tea trade via the Dutch East India Company.[18] The Dutch borrowed the word for "tea" (thee) from Min Chinese, either through trade directly from Fujian or Formosa where they had established a port, or from Malay traders in Bantam, Java.

Also interesting speculation as to whether the chinese themselves got it the word from speakers of austro-asiatic languages living in southwest china.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea#Etymology

And then there's "czajnik" for teapot.

I'm pretty sure 'ananas' is still pineapple in parts of South America, where it's a key ingredient in a Chilean cocktail.

furthermore - palta = avocado, durazno = peach, choclo = corn etc - some of the words that are completely different from their Peninsular Spanish equivalents.