cockchafer

Meanings

1. Any of the large European beetles from the genus Melolontha that are destructive to vegetation.
2. Any of various other similar beetles, such as of the genera Acrossidius, Cyphochilus, Rhopaea, etc.

Etymology

From cock (“male bird”) + chafer (“beetle”). The Oxford English Dictionary speculates that the name may relate to a resemblance of antennae to coxcomb, or to the beetle’s size. Compare French hanneton (“cockchafer”), ultimately from Frankish *hanō (“rooster”). Attested from the late seventeenth century.