wasp

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See also: Wasp and WASP

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

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a wasp

From Middle English wasp, waspe, waps, from Old English wæsp, wæps (“wasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *wapsu, from Proto-Germanic *wapsō, from Proto-Indo-European *wobʰseh₂ (“wasp”), from *webʰ- (“weave”) (referring to the insect's woven nests).

Compare Dutch wesp, German Wespe, Danish hveps. The metathesis of s and p reflects a process of some generality in Old English, cf. ascian ~ acsian (“to ask”); here, Latin vespa (“wasp”) (also a cognate- cf. Old French wespe) may have helped tilt the scales in favour of -sp.

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(Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Noun

wasp (plural wasps)

  2. Any of many types of stinging flying insect resembling a hornet.
  4. (entomology) Any of the members of suborder Apocrita, excepting the ants (family Formicidae) and bees (clade Anthophila).
    2. Any of the members of the family Vespidae.
  6. A person who behaves in an angry or insolent way, hence waspishly.
Derived terms
insects
Descendants
  • Sranan Tongo: waswasi (reduplicated)
Translations

Verb

wasp (third-person singular simple present wasps, present participle wasping, simple past and past participle wasped)

  1. To move like a wasp; to buzz
Derived terms

See also

Etymology 2

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Noun

wasp (plural wasps)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of WASP (“white Anglo-Saxon Protestant”)
Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Thomas Sheridan (1790) A Complete Dictionary of the English Language, Both with Regard to Sound and Meaning‎, volume 2, C. Dilly

Anagrams

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English wæps, wæsp, from Proto-West Germanic *wapsu, from Proto-Germanic *wapsō, from Proto-Indo-European *wobʰséh₂.

Pronunciation

Noun

wasp (plural waspes)

  1. wasp

Descendants

References

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia