earwig
pronunciation
How to pronounce earwig in British English:
UK [ˈɪəwɪg]
How to pronounce earwig in American English:
US [ˈɪrwɪg]
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- Noun:
- any of numerous insects of the order Dermaptera having elongate bodies and slender many-jointed antennae and a pair of large pincers at the rear of the abdomen
Word Origin
- earwig
- earwig: [OE] A colloquial Old English term for ‘insect’ was wicga (which would have been pronounced something like ‘widger’). It probably came from the same prehistoric Germanic base (*wig-) as produced English wiggle [13], and so is roughly equivalent in spirit to modern English creepy-crawly. There used to be a belief (perhaps still is) that earwigs creep into people’s ears and penetrate inside their heads, and so the Anglo-Saxons called them ēarwicga, literally ‘ear-insect’. The same notion lies behind French perceoreille, literally ‘pierceear’, and German ohrwurm, literally ‘earworm’, both of which stand for ‘earwig’.=> wiggle
- earwig (n.)
- type of insect (Forficula auricularia), Old English earwicga "earwig," from eare (see ear (n.1)) + wicga "beetle, worm, insect," probably from the same Germanic source as wiggle, on the notion of "quick movement;" perhaps distantly related to PIE root *wegh- "to go." So called from the ancient and widespread (but false) belief that the garden pest went into people's ears. Compare French perce-oreille, German ohr-wurm. A Northern England name for it reported from 1650s is twitch-ballock.
Example
- 1. Concept artist terryl whitlatch wanted the colo claw fish to have an invertebrate look , so her early designs were based on an earwig .