quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- caterpillar
- caterpillar: [15] Etymologically, a caterpillar is a ‘hairy cat’. The word comes ultimately from late Latin *catta pilōsa: catta is the source of English cat, while pilōsus ‘hairy’ is a derivative of Latin pilus ‘hair’, from which English gets pile of a carpet. In Old French *catta pilōsa became chatepelose, which passed into English as catyrpel.
The present-day form arose in the 16th century, probably from association with the now obsolete piller ‘plunderer’ (related to English pillage) – caterpillars being regarded, of course, as plunderers of leaves. The notion that caterpillars resemble small furry mammals is also reflected in such names as pussmoth and woolly bear.
=> cat, pile - canker (n.)
- late Old English cancer "spreading ulcer, cancerous tumor," from Latin cancer "malignant tumor," literally "crab" (see cancer); influenced in Middle English by Old North French cancre "canker, sore, abscess" (Old French chancre, Modern French chancre). The word was the common one for "cancer" until c. 1700. Also used since 15c. of caterpillars and insect larvae that eat plant buds and leaves. As a verb from late 14c. Related: Cankered; cankerous. Canker blossom is recorded from 1580s.
- coevolution (n.)
- also co-evolution, 1965, from co- + evolution; supposedly introduced by Paul Ehrlich and Peter Raven in a study of the relationship between caterpillars and plants.
- geometrid
- "A moth of a large family (Geometridae), distinguished by having twig-like caterpillars ( loopers) that move by looping and straightening the body", Late 19th century: from modern Latin Geometridae (plural), from the genus name Geometra, from Greek geōmetrēs (see geometer).