avispa

Antigua and Barbuda Creole English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

avispa

1. wasp

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈbispa/ [aˈβ̞is.pa]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ispa
• Syllabification: a‧vis‧pa

Etymology 1

Una avispa ― A wasp

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *webʰ-

Proto-Indo-European *wóbʰseh₂der.

Latin vespa

Old Spanish biespa

▲

Spanish abejainflu.

Spanish avispa

Inherited from Old Spanish biespa, from Latin vespa (“wasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *wobʰseh₂ (“wasp”). The initial /a/ may have been added by analogy with abeja (“bee”). For the development of the stressed vowel, compare víspera, níspero. Doublet of vespa.

Alternative forms

• abispa (obsolete)

Noun

avispa f (plural avispas)

1. wasp (any of many types of stinging flying insects resembling a hornet, normally of the suborder Apocrita)
   • 1591, Richard Percyuall, “Abiſpa”, in Bibliotheca Hispanica. Containg a Grammar, with a Dictionaire in Spanish, English, and Latine […] (in Early Modern English), London: Iohn Iackson, page 56:

     Abiſpa, a waſpe, Veſpa.

     Avispa, a wasp, Vespa.

2. (colloquial) quick-tempered person

Derived terms

• avispa alemana
• avispa asiática
• avispar
• avispero
• avispilla
• avispón
• cintura de avispa

Etymology 2

Verb

avispa

1. inflection of avispar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “avispa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025