cicada

See also: Cicada and cicadă

English

WOTD – 12 August 2015

Alternative forms

• cicad

Etymology

Wikispecies

An adult cicada

Borrowed from Latin cicada, ultimately onomatopoeic. Doublet of cicala.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sɪˈkeɪ.də/, /sɪˈkɑː.də/, [sɪˈkʰeɪ̯.də], [sɪˈkʰɑː.də]
• (US) IPA^(key): /sɪˈkeɪ.də/, /sɪˈkɑ.də/, [sɪ̈ˈkʰeɪ̯.ɾə], [sɪ̈ˈkʰɑ.ɾə]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪdə, -ɑːdə

Noun

cicada (plural cicadas or cicadae or (archaic) cicadæ)

1. Any of several insects in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with small eyes wide apart on the head and transparent well-veined wings.
   • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, page 172:

     Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.

   1. The periodical cicada.
      • 2011, Robert Evans Snodgrass, Insects: Their Ways and Means of Living‎^[2], page 217:

        The emergence years of the principal cicada broods have now been recorded for a long time, and the oldest record of a swarm is that of the appearance of the “locusts” in New England two hundred and ninety-five years ago.

      • 2013 May 16, Laura Kroon, “Magicidada coming to New Jersey on May 27”, in Hunterdon County Democrat:

        Last year, the Brood I cicadas were found in Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee. The cicadas that will emerge in New Jersey this year are part of Brood II or The East Coast Brood. They will also be found in Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Synonyms

• cicala
• (Appalachia) jarfly

Hyponyms

• (periodical cicada): seventeen-year locust, decim periodical cicada

Derived terms

• bladder cicada
• cicada case
• cicada-geddon
• cicada hawk
• cicada killer
• dog-day cicada
• evening cicada
• hairy cicada
• periodical cicada

 

Translations

any of several insects of the order Hemiptera

• Afrikaans: sonbesie
• Ainu: ヤキ (yaki)
• Albanian: gjinkallë (sq) f
• Arabic: زِيز m (zīz)
• Armenian: կնճիթավոր ճպուռ (knčitʿavor čpuṙ), ցիկադա (cʿikada)

  Old Armenian: ճպուռն (čpuṙn)

• Assamese: জিলী (zili)
• Belarusian: цыка́да f (cykáda)
• Bengali: উচ্চিংড়ে (bn) (ucciṅṛe)
• Bulgarian: цикада f (cikada), жътвар m (žǎtvar)
• Burmese: ပုစဉ်းရင်ကွဲ (my) (pu.cany:rangkwai:)
• Catalan: cigala (ca) f
• Cebuano: gangis
• Chepang: लीर्
• Cherokee: ᎶᎶ (lolo)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蟬／蝉 (zh) (chán), 知了 (zh) (zhīliǎo)

• Czech: cikáda f
• Danish: cikade
• Dutch: cicade (nl) f
• Esperanto: cikado
• Estonian: tirt, tsikaad
• Finnish: laulukaskas (fi)
• French: cigale (fr) f
• Friulian: ciale f
• Galician: carricanta f, cantaruxa f, chicharra f, cantariña (gl) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Zikade (de) f
• Greek: τζιτζίκι (el) n (tzitzíki)

  Ancient: τέττιξ m (téttix)

• Guaraní: ñakyrã
• Hindi: शलभ (hi) m (śalabh), सिकाडा (sikāḍā), झींगुर m (jhīṅgur), झीँगुर (hi) m (jhī̃gur)
• Hungarian: kabóca (hu)
• Ilocano: andidit
• Indonesian: tonggeret (id)
• Italian: cicala (it) f
• Japanese: 蝉 (ja) (semi), セミ (ja) (semi)
• Javanese: tonggèrèt
• Khmer: រៃ (km) (rɨy)
• Korean: 매미 (ko) (maemi), 쓰르라미 (ko) (sseureurami)
• Lao: ຈັກຈັ່ນ (chak chan)
• Latin: cicāda f
• Latvian: cikāde f
• Lithuanian: cikada f
• Macedonian: цикада f (cikada)
• Malagasy: jorery (mg)
• Malay: reriang
• Malayalam: ചീവീട് (ml) (cīvīṭŭ)
• Manchu: ᠪᡳᠶᠠᠩᠰᡳᡴᡡ (biyangsikū)
• Maori: tātarakihi
• Mirandese: checharra f
• Navajo: wóóneeshchʼįįdii
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sikade

• Occitan: cigala (oc) f
• Pangasinan: andirit
• Persian: زنجره (fa) (zanjere)
• Polish: cykada (pl) f
• Portuguese: cigarra (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਬੀਂਡਾ m (bīṇḍā)
• Romanian: cicadă (ro) f, cicoare (ro) f
• Russian: цика́да (ru) f (cikáda)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: цврчак m, цикада f

  Roman: cvrčak (sh) m, cikada (sh) f

• Slovak: cikáda (sk) f
• Slovene: škržat (sl) m
• Spanish: chicharra (es) f (Latin America), cigarra (es) f (standard use in Mexico and Spain - Southern Mexico: chicharra), coyuyo m (Northwestern Argentina)
• Swedish: cikada (sv)
• Tagalog: kulilis, kuliglig
• Thai: จักจั่น (th) (jàk-gà-jàn)
• Turkish: ağustos böceği (tr)
• Ukrainian: цика́да (uk) f (cykáda)
• Vietnamese: ve sầu (vi)
• Volapük: zikad
• Zhuang: bid

See also

• cricket
• grasshopper
• locust

Latin

Etymology

Unknown. Probably an onomatopoeic loanword from a lost Mediterranean substrate language. Compare also Sanskrit चिश्चिर (ciścira, “cicada”).

Pronunciation

• cicāda: (Classical) IPA^(key): /kiˈkaː.da/, [kɪˈkäːd̪ä]
• cicāda: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃiˈka.da/, [t͡ʃiˈkäːd̪ä]

Noun

cicāda f (genitive cicādae); first declension

1. cicada, tree-cricket

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cicāda	cicādae
Genitive	cicādae	cicādārum
Dative	cicādae	cicādīs
Accusative	cicādam	cicādās
Ablative	cicādā	cicādīs
Vocative	cicāda	cicādae

Descendants

• → English: cicada
• → Galician: cicada
• → Macedonian: цикада (cikada)
• → Polish: cykada
• → Romanian: cicadă
• → Russian: цика́да f (cikáda)
• → German: Zikade

Reflexes of the late variant cicāla:

• Balkan Romance:
  • ⇒ Romanian: cicoare
  • → Albanian: qingallë ⇒ gjinkallë
• Italo-Romance:
  • Corsican: cicala
  • Italian: cicala
    • → English: cicala
  • Sicilian: cicheda
• North Italian:
  • Friulian: ciale
  • Piedmontese: siala
  • Romagnol: zghêla
  • Venetian: çigala, sigala, sigała
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: cigala
  • Old Occitan: cigala
    • Occitan: cigala
    • → French: cigale
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: zicala
  • Mozarabic: [script needed] (čiqâla)
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: chicula

Reflexes of an assumed variant *cicār(r)a:

• Mozarabic: [Term?]
  • → Galician: chicharra
  • → Portuguese: chicharra
  • → Spanish: chicharra
• Portuguese: cigarra
• Spanish: cigarra

References

• Joan Coromines, José A. Pascual (1984) “cigarra”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), volumes II (Ce–F), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 72

Further reading

• “cicada”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cicada”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cicada in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• cicada in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “cicada”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Romanian

Noun

cicada

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of cicadă