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Compound of death + watch + beetle. The sound the beetles make is said to resemble a ticking watch, and is sometimes believed to herald death. Attested (as death watch) from the late 17th century.
1819, John Mason Good, Olinthus Gregory, Newton Bosworth, Pantologia. A New Cabinet Cyclopedia, page 38:
And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch: Because like a watch it always cries click; Then woe to those in the house who are sick,
1895, J. Hautenville Cope, “The death watch beetle”, in The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Archæological Journal, page 85:
A very deadly enemy to woodwork in churches and other buildings is the creature known as the Death Watch beetle (anobium tessellatum, or rufovillosum).
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2014.