cockroach

English

A cockroach.

Etymology

From Spanish cucaracha, from cuca (“butterfly caterpillars”), of onomatopoeic origin; see also Greek κόκκυξ (kókkux) and Late Latin cucus. Influenced, via folk etymology, by cock and roach. Doublet of cucaracha.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑkɹoʊt͡ʃ/, (nonstandard) /ˈkɑkəɹoʊt͡ʃ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒkɹəʊt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

cockroach (plural cockroaches)

1. A black or brown straight-winged insect of the order Blattodea.

   Synonym: (US) roach

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 121:

     Then there were cockroach hunts; we chased them out of their haunts, where at night they busily devoured currants, jam, and sugar; in fact their diet was far more varied than ours, for they made plentiful meals off our boots, the coverings of our books, and any stray pieces of flannel that came in their way.

2. (slang, offensive) A person or a member of a group of people regarded as undesirable and rapidly procreating.
3. (Australia, slang, derogatory, humorous) A person from New South Wales.
4. (Australia, slang, obsolete) A hard lump of brown sugar.

Derived terms

• amber forest cockroach
• amber wood cockroach
• American cockroach
• Australian cockroach
• cockroach of the sea
• cockroach taxi
• cockroach theory
• cockroach wasp
• emerald cockroach wasp
• German cockroach
• giant burrowing cockroach
• Gisborne cockroach
• hissing cockroach
• kikeroach
• Madagascar hissing cockroach
• oriental cockroach
• roach

 

Descendants

• Bislama: kakros
• Tok Pisin: kokoros
• → Maltese: kokroċ

Translations

type of insect

• Afrikaans: kakkerlak
• Alabama: iskanpatha
• Albanian: kacabu (sq)
• Amharic: በረሮ (bäräro)
• Arabic: صُرْصُور m (ṣurṣūr)

  Egyptian Arabic: صرصار m (ṣurṣār)

  Hijazi Arabic: صرصار m (ṣurṣār), صرصور m (ṣarṣūr)

  Iraqi Arabic: صرصر m (ṣurṣur), بنت وردان m (bent wurdān)

  Moroccan Arabic: سراق الزيت (sarrāq ez-zīt)

  South Levantine Arabic: صرصور m (ṣarṣūr)

• Aragonese: cucaracho m
• Armenian: ուտիճ (hy) (utič), խավարասեր (hy) (xavaraser)
• Assamese: পঁইতাচোৰা (põitasüra)
• Asturian: cucaracha f
• Azerbaijani: tarakan, mətbəxböcəyi, mətbəxqurdu
• Bashkir: тараҡан (taraqan)
• Basque: labezomorro
• Bau Bidayuh: ribabie
• Belait: katibung
• Belarusian: тарака́н m (tarakán), пруса́к m (prusák)
• Bengali: তেলাপোকা (bn) (telapōka), আরশুলা (arśula)
• Berber:

  Tashelhit: ibnḍr m

• Bikol Central: ipis (bcl)
• Brunei Bisaya: lipos
• Brunei Malay: lipas
• Bulgarian: хлеба́рка (bg) f (hlebárka)
• Burmese: ပိုးဟပ် (my) (pui:hap)
• Caac: kaphar
• Catalan: escarabat (ca) m, panerola (ca) f
• Cebuano: ipos, uk-ok
• Central Melanau: belipeh
• Chichewa: mphemvu
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 曱甴 (gaat⁶ zaat^6-2)

  Eastern Min: 虼蚻 (gâ-săk / gáh-săk)

  Hakka: 黃蚻／黄蚻 (vòng-chha̍t)

  Hokkien: 虼蚻 (zh-min-nan) (ka-choa̍h)

  Mandarin: 蟑螂 (zh) (zhāngláng), 蜚蠊 (zh) (fěilián), 偷油婆 (tōuyóupó) (dialectal), 小強／小强 (zh) (xiǎoqiáng) (colloquial)

  Wu: 蟑螂 (¹tsaon-laon), 小強／小强 (⁵shiau-jian)

• Crimean Tatar: qoñuz
• Czech: šváb (cs) m
• Danish: kakerlak (da) c
• Dutch: kakkerlak (nl) f, sissende kakkerlak (nl) f
• Esperanto: blato
• Estonian: prussakas
• Faroese: grótlús f, (colloquial) kakkulakkur m
• Finnish: torakka (fi)
• French: cafard (fr) m, blatte (fr) f, coquerelle (fr) f (Canada)
• Galician: carroucha (gl) f, cascuda (gl) f, cascudo m
• Georgian: აბანოს ჭია (abanos č̣ia), ტარაკანი (ka) (ṭaraḳani)
• German: Schabe (de) f, Kakerlake (de) f
• Greek: κατσαρίδα (el) f (katsarída)

  Ancient: σίλφη f (sílphē)

• Guaraní: tarave
• Haitian Creole: blat
• Hausa: kyànkyasṑ m
• Hebrew: ג׳וּק m (juk), תִּיקָן (he) m (tikan)
• Hiligaynon: tanga
• Hindi: तिलचट्टा m (tilcaṭṭā), तिलचटा (hi) m (tilacṭā), चपड़ा (hi) m (capṛā)
• Hungarian: csótány (hu)
• Icelandic: kakkalakki (is) m
• Ido: blato (io)
• Ilocano: ipes, sipet
• Indonesian: kecoak (id), kacoa (id), kecoa (id)
• Ingrian: prusakka, tarakkana
• Interlingua: blatta
• Irish: blatóg f
• Italian: blatta (it) f, scarafaggio (it) m
• Ivatan: ipues
• Japanese: ゴキブリ (ja) (gokiburi)

  Kansai: アブラムシ (ja) (abura-mushi)

  Kyushu: アマメ (amame)

• Javanese: coro (jv)
• Kanakanabu: 'atatavaang
• Kapampangan: ipas, kasua
• Kashmiri: ؤٹِل (vạṭil)
• Kazakh: тарақан (taraqan)
• Khmer: កន្លាត (km) (kɑnlaat)
• Kikuyu: nyeje
• Kimaragang: lipos
• Korean: 바퀴 (ko) (bakwi), 바퀴벌레 (ko) (bakwibeolle)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: سیسرک (sîsirk), سیسارک (ckb) (sîsark)

  Northern Kurdish: sîsirk (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: таракан (ky) (tarakan)
• Lao: ສາບ (sāp), ແມງສາບ (mǣng sāp)
• Latgalian: brusaks m
• Latin: blatta (la) f
• Latvian: prusaks, tarakāns m
• Lithuanian: tarakonas m
• Macedonian: лебарка f (lebarka), бубашваба f (bubašvaba) (non-standard)
• Maguindanao: kakaba
• Malagasy: kalabe (mg)
• Malay: lipas (ms)
• Malayalam: പാറ്റ (ml) (pāṟṟa)
• Maltese: wirdien m, kokroċ m
• Maori: kēkerengū, kokoroihe, papata
• Meru: njenje
• Minangkabau: lipeh (min)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: жоом (mn) (žoom)

  Mongolian: ᠵᠣᠣᠮ᠎ᠠ (ǰoom-a)

• Moroccan Amazigh: ⴰⴱⴰⵏⴹⵕⵉⵡ (abanḍṛiw)
• Muong: chản, chản chản
• Navajo: chʼoshtsoh
• Neapolitan: scarrafóne
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kakerlakk m

  Nynorsk: kakerlakk m

• Occitan: barbaròt (oc) m
• Okinawan: ひーらー (hīrā), 唐びーらー (とーびーらー, tōbīrā)
• Old Tupi: arabé
• Ottoman Turkish: حمام بوجكی (hamam böceği)
• Paicî: nîîwé
• Pangasinan: asipuet
• Pashto: ګړندۍ f (gaṛandǝ́y)
• Persian: سوسک (fa) (susk), مادر کیکان (mādar-i kaykān) (Afghanistan)
• Plautdietsch: Schaub f
• Polish: karaluch (pl) m anim, karakan (pl) m (colloquial), karaczan (pl) m
• Portuguese: barata (pt) f, carocha (pt) f
• Romanian: gândac (ro) m, libarcă (ro) f, rus (ro) m
• Russian: тарака́н (ru) m (tarakán), пруса́к (ru) m (prusák)
• Saaroa: 'atatavangʉ
• Sambali: ipoh
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бубашва́ба f, жо̏ха̄р m (Croatia)

  Roman: bubašvába (sh) f, žȍhār (sh) m (Croatia)

• Slovak: šváb (sk) m
• Slovene: ščurek (sl) m
• Sotho: lephela
• Spanish: cucaracha (es) f
• Sundanese: ᮎᮥᮎᮥᮍᮥᮊ᮪ (cucunguk)
• Swahili: mende (sw) class 9/10, kombamwiko (sw)
• Swedish: kackerlacka (sv) c
• Sylheti: ꠔꠦꠟꠌꠥꠞꠣ (telsura)
• Tagal Murut: lipos
• Tagalog: ipis
• Tajik: нонхӯрак (tg) (nonxürak)
• Tamil: கக்கலாத்து (ta) (kakkalāttu), கரப்பான் பூச்சி (karappāṉ pūcci)
• Tatar: таракан (taraqan)
• Telugu: బొద్దింక (te) (boddiṅka)
• Tetum: barata
• Thai: แมลงสาบ (th), สาบ (th) (sàap)
• Tibetan: ཤོམ་འབུ (shom 'bu)
• Tigrinya: ድዱዕ (dəduʿ)
• Tswana: lefele
• Turkish: hamam böceği (tr)
• Turkmen: saçakçy, tarakan
• Tutong: lipos
• Uab Meto: iki
• Ukrainian: тарга́н m (tarhán), тарака́н m (tarakán), пруса́к m (prusák)
• Urdu: تل چٹا m (til caṭṭā)
• Uyghur: مايقۇرت (mayqurt)
• Uzbek: suvarak (uz), tezgizak (uz), tarakan (uz)
• Vietnamese: gián (vi)
• Volapük: skaraf
• Welsh: chwilen ddu f, blac-pat m
• West Coast Bajau: bobok
• Wolof: mbóot mi (wo)
• Yiddish: טאַראַקאַן (tarakan), רוס m (rus), פּרוסאַק m (prusak), קנײַפּער m (knayper), פֿראַנצויז m (frantsoyz), שוואַב m (shvab)
• Zazaki: nankewerık
• Zhuang: sap
• ǃXóõ: gúle

Further reading

• cockroach on Wikipedia.Wikipedia