wasp

See also: Wasp and WASP

English

Alternative forms

• waps

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wɒsp/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /wɑsp/
• (AAVE) IPA^(key): /waps/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /wæsp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒsp

Etymology 1

a wasp

From Middle English wasp, waspe, waps, from Old English wæsp, wæps (“wasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *wapsu, from Proto-Germanic *wapsō, from Proto-Indo-European *wobʰseh₂ (“wasp”), from *webʰ- (“weave”) (referring to the insect's woven nests).

Compare Dutch wesp, German Wespe, Danish hveps. The metathesis of s and p reflects a process of some generality in Old English, cf. ascian ~ acsian (“to ask”); here, Latin vespa (“wasp”) (also a cognate- cf. Old French wespe) may have helped tilt the scales in favour of -sp. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Noun

wasp (plural wasps)

1. Any of many types of stinging flying insect resembling a hornet.
2. (entomology) Any of the members of suborder Apocrita, excepting the ants (family Formicidae) and bees (clade Anthophila).
   1. Any of the members of the family Vespidae.
3. A person who behaves in an angry or insolent way, hence waspish.

Derived terms

• waspie
• waspish
• wasplike
• wasp waist
• wasp-waisted
• waspy

 

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: waswasi (reduplicated)

Translations

insect

• Afrikaans: perdeby (af), wespe
• Albanian: grerëz f, grenzë f, arëz (sq) f, anëz f, greth (sq) f
• Arabic: دَبُّور‎ m (dabbūr), زُنْبُور‎ m (zunbūr)

  Egyptian Arabic: دبور‎ m (dabbūr)

  Moroccan Arabic: رزوزية‎ f (rzūziyya)

• Armenian: կրետ (hy) (kret)
• Aromanian: yeaspi f, yaspi f, ayeaspi f
• Assamese: বৰল (borol)
• Asturian: aviespa f
• Azerbaijani: eşşəkarısı (az)
• Baluchi: گوبز‎ (gwabz)
• Bashkir: һағыҙаҡ (hağıðaq)
• Basque: liztor (eu)
• Belarusian: аса́ f (asá)
• Bengali: বোলতা (bōlota)
• Bulgarian: оса́ (bg) f (osá)
• Burmese: နကျယ်ကောင် (my) (na.kyaikaung)
• Catalan: vespa (ca) f
• Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵉⵕⵥⵥⵉ m (iṛẓẓi)
• Chamicuro: shani
• Chechen: зӏуга (zˀuga)
• Chichewa: bavu
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 黃蜂／黄蜂 (zh) (huángfēng), 胡蜂 (zh) (húfēng)

• Chuvash: сӑпса (săpsa)
• Cornish: gohien f
• Czech: vosa (cs) f
• Danish: hveps (da) c, gedehams c
• Darkinjung: murulgang
• Dutch: wesp (nl) f
• Elfdalian: djietingg m
• Esperanto: vespo
• Estonian: herilane
• Evenki: дюгуктэ (ʒuguktə)
• Faroese: vespa f
• Finnish: ampiainen (fi)
• Franco-Provençal: vépa f
• French: guêpe (fr) f
• Friulian: gjespe f, jespe f, viespe f
• Galician: avéspora (gl) f, avespa (gl) f, nespra (gl) f
• Georgian: ბზიკი (bziḳi), კრაზანა (ḳrazana)
• German: Wespe (de) f
• Greek: σφήκα (el) f (sfíka)

  Ancient: σφήξ m or f (sphḗx)

• Greenlandic: hvepsi, iguutilik
• Haitian Creole: gèp, djèp
• Hebrew: צִרְעָה‎ (he) f (tsir'ah)
• Hindi: हड्डा (hi) ? (haḍḍā), ततैया (hi) f (tataiyā)
• Hungarian: darázs (hu)
• Icelandic: geitungur (is) m
• Ingrian: vaapsahain
• Ingush: зӏокмоза (zˀokmoza)
• Irish: foiche f, beach chapaill f, beach ghabhair f
• Italian: vespa (it) f
• Japanese: 雀蜂 (ja) (すずめばち, suzumebachi), 蜂 (ja) (はち, hachi)
• Kapampangan: tamumu
• Kazakh: ара (kk) (ara), сона (sona), жабайы ара (jabaiy ara)
• Khmer: ឪម៉ាល់ (km) (ʼəwmal), ញាំង (ñĕəng), តាហ៊រ (km) (taahɔɔ)
• Komi-Zyrian: зі (zi), чушканзі (ćuškanzi)
• Korean: 말벌 (ko) (malbeol)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: زەردەواڵە‎ (ckb) (zerdewalle)

  Northern Kurdish: mozqirtik (ku), pîzang (ku), zirkêtk (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: аары (ky) (aarı)
• Lao: ໂຕຕໍ່ (tō tǭ), ຕໍ່ (tǭ)
• Latgalian: lapsine f
• Latin: vespa f, dolichovespa f
• Latvian: lapsene f
• Lithuanian: vapsva f, širšė f, (Vespa crabro) širšuolis m
• Livonian: vaps
• Low German:

  German Low German: Wöps, Wösp

• Luxembourgish: Harespel (lb) f
• Macedonian: о́са f (ósa)
• Malay: tebuan (ms), penyengat
• Malayalam: കടന്നൽ (kaṭannal)
• Maltese: żunżan m
• Manchu: ᡧᡝᡧᡝᠮᡦᡝ (šešempe)
• Manx: connspeagh m, poogh m, shellan cabbyl m
• Maori: wāpi
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: пачемыш (pačemyš)

  Western Mari: потемшӹ (potemšÿ)

• Middle Persian: 𐭥𐭯𐭦‎ (ʿpz /⁠wabz⁠/)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: морин зөгий (morin zögii), шар зөгий (šar zögii) (China)

  Mongolian: ᠮᠣᠷᠢᠨ
  ᠵᠥᠭᠡᠢ (morin ǰögei̯), ᠰᠢᠷ᠎ᠠ
  ᠵᠥᠭᠡᠢ (sir'a ǰögei̯)

• Navajo: tsísʼnáłtsooí
• Northern Sami: vievssis
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: veps (no) m

  Nynorsk: veps m, kvefs m

• Occitan: vèspa (oc) f
• Ojibwe: ᐋᒨ (aamoo)
• Old Church Slavonic: оса f (osa)
• Old English: wæps f
• Ottoman Turkish: یابان آریسی‎ (yaban arısı)
• Panamint: poihna, woakuutsi
• Persian: زنبور‎ (fa) (zanbur), گبت‎ (fa) (gabt)

  Middle Persian: wabz

• Piedmontese: vespa f
• Plautdietsch: Willebie f
• Polish: osa (pl) f
• Portuguese: vespa (pt) f
• Romanian: viespe (ro) f
• Romansch: vespra f, viaspra f
• Russian: оса́ (ru) f (osá)
• Sardinian: espa f, espe m
• Scottish Gaelic: speach f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: о̀са f, зоља f

  Roman: òsa (sh) f, zolja (sh) f

• Sicilian: vespa (scn) f
• Slovak: osa f
• Slovene: ôsa (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: wósa f

  Upper Sorbian: wosa f

• Southern Altai: јер ару (ǰer aru)
• Spanish: avispa (es) f
• Swedish: geting (sv) c
• Tagalog: putakti, lulumbo, hinlulumbo
• Tajik: занбӯр (tg) (zanbür), ору (tg) (oru)
• Tarifit: iyarẓẓi m
• Tatar: шөпшә (tt) (şöpşä)
• Thai: ตัวต่อ (th) (dtua dtɔ̀ɔ), ต่อ (th) (dtɔ̀ɔ)
• Tibetan: མདུང་སྦྲང (mdung sbrang)
• Turkish: yaban arısı (tr)
• Turkmen: eşegary (tk)
• Udmurt: дуринчи (durinći)
• Ukrainian: оса́ f (osá)
• Urdu: تتیا‎ ? (tataiyā)
• Uyghur: ھەرە‎ (here)
• Uzbek: ari (uz)
• Venetian: brespa f, bespa f, vespa f, ciospa f
• Vietnamese: ong bắp cày (vi)
• Vilamovian: wesp f
• Volapük: vesep (vo), (older term) lubien
• Walloon: wesse (wa) f
• Welsh: cacynen (cy) f, gwenynen feirch f, picwnen f
• Wolof: njulli-kaata bi
• Yakut: тигээйи (tigeeyi)
• Yiddish: וועספּ‎ f (vesp)
• Yoruba: agbọ́n
• Zaghawa: bingbing

Verb

wasp (third-person singular simple present wasps, present participle wasping, simple past and past participle wasped)

1. To move like a wasp; to buzz

See also

• bee
• hornet

Etymology 2

Noun

wasp (plural wasps)

1. Alternative letter-case form of WASP (“white Anglo-Saxon Protestant”)

Derived terms

• waspy, waspish, waspishly, waspishness

Anagrams

• APWs, AWPs, WAPs, WSPA, paws, spaw, swap, waps

Middle English

Alternative forms

• wappes, waps, waspe

Etymology

From Old English wæps, wæsp, from Proto-West Germanic *wapsu, from Proto-Germanic *wapsō, from Proto-Indo-European *wobʰséh₂.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wasp/

Noun

wasp (plural waspes)

1. wasp

Descendants

• English: wasp, waps
  • Sranan Tongo: waswasi (reduplicated)
• Scots: wasp, wesp

References

• “wasp, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-17.