locust
pronunciation
How to pronounce locust in British English:
UK [ˈləʊkəst]
How to pronounce locust in American English:
US [ˈloʊkəst]
-
- Noun:
- migratory grasshoppers of warm regions having short antennae
- hardwood from any of various locust trees
- any of various hard-wooded trees of the family Leguminosae
Word Origin
- locust
- locust: see lobster
- locust (n.1)
- "grasshopper," early 14c., borrowed earlier in Old French form languste (c. 1200), from Latin locusta "locust, lobster" (see lobster).In the Hebrew Bible there are nine different names for the insect or for particular species or varieties; in the English Bible they are rendered sometimes 'locust,' sometimes 'beetle,' 'grasshopper,' 'caterpillar,' 'palmerworm,' etc. The precise application of several names is unknown. [OED]
- locust (n.2)
- North American tree, 1630s, originally "carob tree" (1610s), whose fruit supposedly resembled the insect (see locust (n.1)). Greek akris "locust" often was applied in the Levant to carob pods. Soon applied in English to other trees as well.
Example
- 1. Loaded with protein , deep-fried locust tastes a bit like fried chicken .
- 2. Of these you may eat any kind of locust , katydid , cricket or grasshopper .
- 3. I 'll be honest , deep-fried locust is not the most delicious snack I 've ever had .
- 4. Theories that weather-related calamities such as drought , floods and locust plagues steered the unraveling or creation of chinese dynasties are not new .
- 5. As merckle 's stock-market gamble failed , he seemed to become a homegrown locust for commentators and politicians looking for a scapegoat for the financial situation .