cockroach
pronunciation
How to pronounce cockroach in British English:
UK [ˈkɒkrəʊtʃ]
How to pronounce cockroach in American English:
US [ˈkɑkroʊtʃ]
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- Noun:
- any of numerous chiefly nocturnal insects; some are domestic pests
Word Origin
- cockroach
- cockroach: [17] Cockroach is a product of folk etymology, the process by which a ‘foreign’ – sounding is adapted by speakers of a language so as to seem more familiar. In this case the foreign word was Spanish cucaracha. This was evidently too much for 17th-century English tongues, so the first element was transformed into cock and the second to roach (presumably after the freshwater fish of that name). Modern English roach ‘butt of a marijuana cigarette’ [20] is probably an abbreviation of cockroach, but this is not certain.
- cockroach (n.)
- 1620s, folk etymology (as if from cock + roach) of Spanish cucaracha "chafer, beetle," from cuca "kind of caterpillar." Folk etymology also holds that the first element is from caca "excrement."A certaine India Bug, called by the Spaniards a Cacarootch, the which creeping into Chests they eat and defile with their ill-sented dung [Capt. John Smith, "Virginia," 1624].
Example
- 1. There 's an electric cockroach too .
- 2. A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death .
- 3. This cockroach running up the kitchen wall in a big hurry must have just peeked at its watch .
- 4. It 's also a component of cockroach alarm pheromones , chemical signals that warn the colony of danger .
- 5. Attach it to the dismembered leg of an unsuspecting cockroach and listen to its neurons as an iphone interface creates visualizations .