locust

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See also: Locust

English

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Etymology

From Middle English locuste, locust, from Anglo-Norman locuste, Middle French locuste, and their source, Latin locusta (“locust, crustacean, lobster”). Doublet of langouste.

The tree sense, originally referring to the carob (compare locust bean), is based on the resemblance of the trees' beanlike seed pods to the insect and is likely a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ἀκρίς (akrís).

The sense in "Mainlander" is a semantic loan from Cantonese 蝗蟲／蝗虫 (wong4 cung4), also meaning "locust".

Pronunciation

Noun

locust (plural locusts)

  1. Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, (especially) migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria).
  2. (now historical) A fruit or pod of a carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua).
    • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 9, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I:
      Among other articles, they brought with them a great quantity of locusts, which are a kind of pulse, sweet and pleasant to the palate, and in shape resembling French beans, but longer.
  3. Any of various often leguminous trees and shrubs, especially of the genera Robinia and Gleditsia; locust tree.
  4. A cicada.
  5. (Hong Kong, derogatory, offensive) A Mainlander.

Usage notes

  • Sometimes confused with locus.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

locust (third-person singular simple present locusts, present participle locusting, simple past and past participle locusted)

  1. (intransitive) To come in a swarm.
    • 1875, Alfred Tennyson, Queen Mary: A Drama, London: Henry S. King & Co., →OCLC, (please specify the page):
      This Philip and the black-faced swarms of Spain,
      The hardest, cruellest people in the world,
      Come locusting upon us, eat us up,
      Confiscate lands, goods, money […]

References

  1. ^ “locust”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “locust (n.2)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

locust

  1. Alternative form of locuste
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