locusta

English

Noun

locusta (plural locustae)

1. (botany) The spikelet or flower cluster of grasses.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gray to this entry?)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

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Italian

Etymology

From Latin locusta.

Noun

locusta f (plural locuste)

1. locust

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Latin

Alternative forms

• lacusta
• lucusta

Etymology

The origin is uncertain. According to De Vaan, the only word similar in form and meaning is lacerta (“lizard; mackerel”) and “they could be cognate words in the language from which Latin borrowed these forms”. Pokorny connects locusta and lacerta with Ancient Greek λάξ (laks) λάγδην (lagdēn, “with the foot”, adv), λάκτις (laktis, “pestle”), λικερτίζειν (likertizein, “to jump, to dance”) and Old Norse leggr (“lower leg, bone”), Lombardic [script?] (lagi, “thigh”), deriving all from Proto-Indo-European *lek- (“joint, member; to bend, to wind”), explaining locusta as “equipped with joints”. This is considered unconvincing by De Vaan.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /loˈkus.ta/

Noun

locusta f (genitive locustae); first declension

1. locust, grasshopper
2. crustacean, marine shellfish, lobster

Inflection

First declension.

Number	Singular	Plural
nominative	locusta	locustae
genitive	locustae	locustārum
dative	locustae	locustīs
accusative	locustam	locustās
ablative	locustā	locustīs
vocative	locusta	locustae

Derived terms

• lacusta
• prius pariet locusta Lūcam bovem

Related terms

• Lōcusta, Lūcusta

Descendants

• English: lobster, locust
• French: locuste
• Italian: locusta
• Old English: loppestre, lopustre, lopystre
• Portuguese: locusta
• Romanian: locustă
• Spanish: langosta

References

• Julius Pokorny (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, in 3 vols, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, volume II, page 673
• “locusta” in Alfred Ernout, Antoine Meillet (2001), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine (4th edition), Paris: Klincksieck, page 365ab
• “locusta” in Michiel de Vaan (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden, Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, pages 347, 348