English Explanatory Dictionary

wasp

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any of many types of stinging flying insect resembling a hornet.
  2. Any of the members of suborder Apocrita, excepting the ants (family Formicidae) and bees (clade Anthophila).
  3. Any of the members of the family Vespidae.
  4. A person who behaves in an angry or insolent way, hence waspishly.
verb
  1. To move like a wasp; to buzz.
noun
  1. Alternative letter-case form of WASP (“white Anglo-Saxon Protestant”).
noun
  1. Acronym of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, a member of the supposed ruling class of America.
  2. Initialism of Women Airforce Service Pilots.
noun
  1. Alternative letter-case form of WASP.

Pronunciation

/wɒsp/ /wɑsp/ /waps/ /wæsp/ en-us-wasp.ogg

Word forms

wasp wasps waps wasping wasped

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- Proto-Indo-European *wóbʰseh₂ Proto-Germanic *wapsō Proto-West Germanic *wapsu Old English wæps Middle English wasp English wasp Inherited from Middle English wasp, waspe, waps, from Old English wæsp, wæps, from Proto-West Germanic *wapsu, from Proto-Germanic *wapsō, from Proto-Indo-European *wóbʰseh₂ (“wasp”), from *webʰ- (“to weave”), referring to the insect's woven nests. Compare Dutch wesp, German Wespe, Danish hveps. Metathesis of /s/ and /p/ was both a process of some generality within English (compare grasp from Middle English grapsen, and—affecting other plosives—ascian ~ acsian (“to ask”)) and common in the reflexes of *wóps-eh₂ (“wasp”) in particular, as the aforementioned Germanic cognates (and non-Germanic cognates like Latin vespa) evince.

Related words

bee hornet

Derived words

red wasp waspie wasplike Wasps Nest wasp waist wasp-waisted baeine wasp bone-house wasp braconine wasp chalcid wasp cockroach wasp common wasp cuckoo wasp digger wasp encyrtid wasp ensign wasp Euro wasp fig wasp crown wasp gall wasp German wasp gold wasp honey wasp horse guard wasp ichneumon wasp jewel wasp leaf wasp long-tailed wasp mason wasp media wasp median wasp mole cricket wasp mud wasp mutillid wasp oak rough bulletgall wasp paper wasp parasitoid wasp pelecinid wasp platygastrid wasp pollen wasp potter wasp ringed paper wasp sand wasp scelionid wasp scolliid wasp sea wasp social wasp solitary wasp soul-sucking wasp spider wasp spider-hunting wasp stephanid wasp tiphiid wasp two-spotted scoliid wasp vespid wasp vespoid wasp umbrella wasp warrior wasp wasp beetle wasp moth
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