wasp

See also: WASP

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /wɒsp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /wɑsp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

a wasp

From Middle English wasp, waspe, waps, from Old English wæsp, wæps (“wasp”), 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) may have helped tilt the scales in favour of -sp.

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

• baeine wasp (Scelionidae)
• bone-house wasp (Deuteragenia ossarium)
• braconine wasp (Braconidae)
• chalcid wasp (Chalcidoidea)
• cockroach wasp (Ampulicidae)
• common wasp (Vespula vulgaris)
• cuckoo wasp (Chrysididae)
• digger wasp (Sphecidae)
• encyrtid wasp (Encyrtidae)
• ensign wasp (Evaniidae)
• Euro wasp (Dolichovespula media)
• fig wasp (Agaonidae)
• crown wasp (Stephanidae)
• gall wasp (Cynipidae)
• German wasp (Vespula germanica)
• gold wasp (Chrysididae)
• ichneumon wasp (Ichneumonidae)
• jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa)
• long-tailed wasp (Megalyridae)
• mason wasp (Eumeninae)
• media wasp, median wasp (Dolichovespula media)
• mutillid wasp (Mutillidae)
• paper wasp (Vespidae)
• pelecinid wasp (Pelecinidae)
• platygastrid wasp (Platygastroidea)

• pollen wasp (Vespidae)
• potter wasp (Eumeninae)
• sand wasp (genus Ammophila, in family Sphecidae, or tribe Bembicini, in family Crabronidae)
• scelionid wasp (Scelionidae)
• scolliid wasp (Scolliidae)
• sea wasp (orders Carybdeida, Chirodropida)
• social wasp (Vespinae)
• soul-sucking wasp (Ampulex dementor)
• spider wasp (Pompilidae)
• stephanid wasp (Stephanidae)
• tiphiid wasp (Tiphiidae)
• vespid wasp (Vespidae)
• vespoid wasp (Vespoidea)
• wasp beetle (Clytus arietis)
• wasp moth (Ctenuchini)
• wasp-nest beetle (Metoecus paradoxus)
• waspie
• waspish
• wasplike
• wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi)
• wasp waist
• wasp-waisted
• waspy
• wood wasp (suborder Symphyta)

Translations

insect

• Albanian: grerëz f, arëz (sq) f
• Arabic: دَبُّور‎‎ m (dabbūr), زُنْبُور‎‎ m (zunbūr)

  Moroccan Arabic: رزوزية‎‎ f (rzoziya)

• 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 (hağïðaq)
• Basque: liztor (eu)
• Belarusian: аса́ f (asá)
• Bengali: বোলতা (bolta)
• Bulgarian: оса́ (bg) f (osá)
• Burmese: နကျယ်ကောင် (my) (na.kyaikaung)
• Catalan: vespa (ca) f
• Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵉⵕⵥⵥⵉ m (iṛẓẓi)
• Chamicuro: shani
• Chichewa: bavu
• Chinese:

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

• 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
• 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, f (sphḗx)

• Greenlandic: hvepsi
• Hebrew: צִרְעָה‎‎ f (tsir'ah)
• Hindi: हड्डा (hi) (haḍḍā), ततैया (hi) (tataiyā)
• Hungarian: darázs (hu)
• Icelandic: geitungur (is) m
• Irish: foiche f, beach chapaill f, beach ghabhair f
• Italian: vespa (it) f
• Japanese: 雀蜂 (すずめばち, suzumebachi), 蜂 (ja) (はち, hachi)
• Kazakh: ара (kk) (ara), сона (sona), жабайы ара (jabayı ara), жабайы ара (jabayı ara)
• Khmer: ឱម៉ាល់ (km) (aomal), សត្វឱម៉ាល់ (sat aomal)
• Korean: 말벌 (ko) (malbeol)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: زه‌رده‌واڵه‌‎‎ (zerdewale)

• 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)
• Macedonian: о́са f (ósa)
• Malay: tebuan, penyengat
• Maltese: żunżan m
• Manx: shellan cabbyl
• Maori: wāpi
• Middle Persian: 𐭥𐭯𐭦‎‎ (wabz)
• Mongolian: морин зөгий (morin zögij)
• Navajo: tsísʼnáłtsooí
• Northern Sami: vievssis
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: veps (no) m

  Nynorsk: veps m, kvefs m

• Occitan: vèspa (oc) f
• Old Church Slavonic: оса f (osa)
• Old English: wæsp m
• Panamint: poihna, woakuutsi
• Persian: زنبور‎‎ (fa) (zanbur), گبت‎‎ (fa) (gabt)

  Middle Persian: wabz

• Polish: osa (pl) f
• Portuguese: vespa (pt)
• Romanian: viespe (ro) f
• Romansch: vespra f, viaspra
• Russian: оса́ (ru) f (osá)
• Sardinian: espa, espe
• 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

• Spanish: avispa (es) f
• Swedish: geting (sv) c
• Tagalog: putakti
• Tajik: занбӯр (tg) (zanbür), ору (tg) (oru)
• Thai: ตัวต่อ (th) (dtua dtɔ̀ɔ), ต่อ (th) (dtɔ̀ɔ)
• Tibetan: མདུང་སྦྲང (mdung sbrang)
• Turkish: yaban arısı (tr)
• Turkmen: eşegary (tk)
• Ukrainian: оса́ f (osá)
• Urdu: تتیا‎‎ (tataiyā)
• 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
• Wolof: njulli-kaata bi
• Yiddish: וועספּ‎‎ (vesp)

See also

• bee
• hornet

Etymology 2

Originally an acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

Noun

wasp (plural wasps)

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

Further reading

• wasp on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

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