Translingual

Locusta migratoria

Proper noun

Locusta f

1. A taxonomic genus within the family Acrididae – the locusts.

Hypernyms

• (genus): Insecta - class; Dicondylia, Pterygota, Metapterygota, Neoptera - clades; Polyneoptera - supercohort; Anartioptera - cohort; Polyorthoptera - magnorder; Orthopterida - superorder; Orthoptera - order; Caelifera - suborder; Acrididea - infraorder; Acridoidea - superfamily; Acrididae - family

Hyponyms

• (genus): Locusta migratoria (originally Gryllus migratorius) - type species

English

Noun

locusta ‎(plural locustae)

1. (botany) The spikelet or flower cluster of grasses.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gray to this entry?)

Italian

Etymology

From Latin locusta.

Noun

locusta f ‎(plural locuste)

1. locust

Latin

Alternative forms

• lacusta
• lucusta

Etymology

The origin is uncertain. According to De Vaan, the only word similar in form and meaning is lacerta ‎(“lizard; mackerel”) and “they could be cognate words in the language from which Latin borrowed these forms”. Pokorny connects locusta and lacerta with Ancient Greek λάξ ‎(láx) λάγδην ‎(lágdēn, “with the foot”, adverb), λάκτις ‎(láktis, “pestle”), λικερτίζειν ‎(likertízein, “to jump, to dance”) and Old Norse leggr ‎(“lower leg, bone”), Lombardic [Term?] ‎(lagi, “thigh”), deriving all from Proto-Indo-European *lek- ‎(“joint, member; to bend, to wind”), explaining locusta as “equipped with joints”. This is considered unconvincing by De Vaan.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /loˈkus.ta/

Noun

locusta f ‎(genitive locustae); first declension

1. locust, grasshopper
2. crustacean, marine shellfish, lobster

Inflection

First declension.

Derived terms

• lacusta
• prius pariet locusta Lūcam bovem

Related terms

• Lōcusta, Lūcusta

Descendants

• English: lobster, locust
• French: locuste
• Italian: aragosta
• Old English: loppestre, lopustre, lopystre
• Portuguese: locusta
• Romanian: locustă
• Spanish: langosta
• Translingual: Locusta

References

• locusta in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• locusta in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• LOCUSTA in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “locusta”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• locusta in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• locusta in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume II, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 673
• Ernout, Alfred; Meillet, Antoine (2001), “locusta”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots (in French), with additions and corrections of André J., 4th edition, Paris: Klincksieck, page 365ab
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “locusta”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, pages 347-348