Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word kakkerlak. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word kakkerlak, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say kakkerlak in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word kakkerlak you have here. The definition of the word kakkerlak will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofkakkerlak, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
First attested as kackerlack towards the end of the 16th century as a derogatory term for a chatterbox or sycophant, deriving from kakker, a contemptuous term derived from kakken(“to shit, defecate”), and lakker(“talker, freeloader”), from likken(“to lick”).
This word was subsequently conflated (from the mid-17th century onwards) with an unrelated early Portuguese form cacalacca designating the insect. The Portuguese word has in turn been argued to be derived from a Caribbean word, from which Spanishcucaracha and hence Englishcockroach also originate. However, a more likely theory is that the Portuguese learned that name from the people in the then Dahomey. In Fon, kakalaka means cockroaches.