wasp
pronunciation
How to pronounce wasp in British English:
UK [wɒsp]
How to pronounce wasp in American English:
US [wɑːsp]
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- Noun:
- social or solitary hymenopterans typically having a slender body with the abdomen attached by a narrow stalk and having a formidable sting
Word Origin
- wasp
- wasp: [OE] Etymologically, the wasp may be the ‘weaver’. The word comes ultimately from Indo- European *wobhes- or *wops-, which was probably derived from the base *webh-, *wobh- ‘weave’ (source of English weave, web, etc); the allusion is presumably to the papery nest which many species construct. West Germanic took this over as *wabis- or *waps-, and the process of metathesis (reversal of sounds) produced English wasp and German wespe. From the same Indo-European ancestor come Latin vespa (source of French guêpe, Italian vespa, and Spanish avispa) and Russian osa.=> weave, web
- wasp (n.)
- Old English wæps, wæsp "wasp," altered (probably by influence of Latin vespa) from Proto-Germanic *wabis- (cognates: Old Saxon waspa, Middle Dutch wespe, Dutch wesp, Old High German wafsa, German Wespe, Danish hveps), from PIE *wopsa-/*wospa- "wasp" (cognates: Latin vespa, Lithuanian vapsa, Old Church Slavonic vosa "wasp," Old Irish foich "drone"), perhaps from *webh- "weave" (see weave (v.)). If that is the correct derivation, the insect would be so called for the shape of its nest. Of persons with wasp-like tendencies, from c. 1500. Wasp-waist in reference to women's figures is recorded from 1870 (wasp-waisted is from 1775).
- WASP (n.)
- acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, by 1955.
Example
- 1. Who ever heard of a parrot with a wasp problem ?
- 2. Hope , however , may lie with an asian parasitic wasp , which helpfully lays its eggs inside stink bug eggs .
- 3. Bacteria in wasp antennae produce antibiotic cocktails
- 4. And off we went in a 20-year-old rolls-royce black with yellow wheels resembling a wasp .
- 5. A wasp was brought from south america to combat africa 's cassava mealybug .