locusta

See also: 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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for locusta in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Anagrams

• Tuscola, couatls, talcous

---

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin locusta, of uncertain origin. Doublet of the inherited Doublet of aragosta.

Noun

locusta f (plural locuste)

1. locust

---

Latin

Alternative forms

• lū̆custa

Etymology

The origin is uncertain, length of the first vowel varies. 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 lō̆custa and lacerta with Ancient Greek λάξ (láx) λάγδην (lágdēn, “with the foot”, adverb), λάκτις (láktis, “pestle”), λικερτίζειν (likertízein, “to jump, to dance”) and Old Norse leggr (“lower leg, bone”), Lombardic [Term?] (lagi, “thigh”), deriving all from Proto-Indo-European *lek- (“joint, member; to bend, to wind”), explaining lō̆custa as “equipped with joints”. This is considered unconvincing by De Vaan.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /loːˈkus.ta/, [ɫ̪oːˈkʊs.t̪a] or IPA^(key): /loˈkus.ta/, [ɫ̪ɔˈkʊs.t̪a]

Noun

lō̆custa f (genitive lō̆custae); first declension

1. locust, grasshopper
   • 2015, Tuomo Pekkanen, Ingentes greges locustarum in Russia meridionali. [1], Nuntii Latini 7.8.2015:

     Ingentēs gregēs lō̆custārum regiōnem Stavropolis in Russiā merīdiōnālī invāsērunt.

     A giant swarm of locusts has invaded the Stavropolsky district in southern Russia.

2. crustacean, marine shellfish, lobster

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	lō̆custa	lō̆custae
Genitive	lō̆custae	lō̆custārum
Dative	lō̆custae	lō̆custīs
Accusative	lō̆custam	lō̆custās
Ablative	lō̆custā	lō̆custīs
Vocative	lō̆custa	lō̆custae

Derived terms

• prius pariet lō̆custa Lūcam bovem
• Lō̆custa

Descendants

• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: lacusta
  • Aromanian lãcustã
  • Asturian: llagosta, llangosta, l.langosta
  • Catalan: llagosta
  • French: langouste (through Old Occitan)
  • Galician: lagosta, lagostra
  • Italian: aragosta
  • Occitan: langosta
  • Old French: laöste, laüste, laouste
  • Portuguese: lagosta
  • Romanian: lăcustă
  • Spanish: lagosta, langosta
• Italian: aragosta
• → Italian: locusta
• → Old French: locuste
  • French: locuste
  • → English: locust
• → Portuguese: locusta
• → Romanian: locustă
• → Old English: loppestre, lopustre, lopystre (possibly)
  • English: lobster
• → Translingual: Locusta

References

• locusta in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• locusta in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• locusta in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• locusta in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• locusta in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• locusta in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume II, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 673
• Ernout, Alfred; Meillet, Antoine (2001), “locusta”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots (in French), with additions and corrections of André J., 4th edition, Paris: Klincksieck, page 365ab
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “locusta”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, pages 347-348

---

Middle English

Noun

locusta

1. Alternative form of locuste