weevil
pronunciation
How to pronounce weevil in British English:
UK [ˈwiːvl]
How to pronounce weevil in American English:
US [ˈwiːvl]
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- Noun:
- any of several families of mostly small beetles that feed on plants and plant products; especially snout weevils and seed weevils
Word Origin
- weevil
- weevil: [15] Old English had a word wifel ‘beetle’, but this appears to have died out, and weevil was probably borrowed from Middle Low German wevel. Both words had the same ultimate origin, however: prehistoric Germanic *webilaz. It is not clear whether this was derived from the base *web-, *wab- ‘weave’ (source of English weave ‘make cloth’ and web), in which case the weevil would be the ‘weaving’ creature; or from the base *web- ‘move quickly’ (source of English weave ‘move in a zigzag way’, whip, etc), in which case it would be the ‘quick mover’.
- weevil (n.)
- Old English wifel "small beetle," from Proto-Germanic *webilaz (cognates: Old Saxon wibil, Old High German wibil, German Wiebel "beetle, chafer," Old Norse tordyfill "dung beetle"), cognate with Lithuanian vabalas "beetle," from PIE root *webh- "to weave," also "to move quickly" (see weave (v.)). The sense gradually narrowed by 15c. to a particular kind of beetle that, in larval or adult stages, bores into plants, often destroying them.
Example
- 1. No , I will not sit on your lap , bearded weevil .
- 2. At least weevil was right about one thing .
- 3. Behavior of artifical rearing of red palm weevil , rhynchophorus ferrugineus .
- 4. Genetically modified peas can resist weevil .
- 5. Brown weevil that infests stored grain esp. rice .