locusta

locusta

See also: Locusta

English

Noun

locusta (plural locustae)

1. (botany) The spikelet or flower cluster of grasses[1]

References

1. 1857, Asa Gray, First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology

• locusta in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• Tuscola, costula, couatls, talcous

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Italian

Etymology

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

Noun

locusta f (plural locuste)

1. locust

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Latin

Alternative forms

• lucusta, *lacusta

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 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/, [ɫ̪oːˈkʊs̠t̪ä] or IPA^(key): /loˈkus.ta/, [ɫ̪ɔˈkʊs̠t̪ä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /loˈkus.ta/, [loˈkust̪ä]
• Note: in Late Latin hexameter poetry, the vowel normally scans short, in contrast to the personal name where it scans long.

Noun

lō̆custa f (genitive lō̆custae); first declension

1. a grasshopper or locust
   • 2015, Tuomo Pekkanen, Ingentes greges locustarum in Russia meridionali. , 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. a crustacean, (prob) a kind of lobster

   lō̆custa marīna/maris ― a crustacean (literally, “a sea grasshopper”)

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, Lū̆custa

Descendants

• Vulgar Latin: *lacusta (see there for further descendants)

Borrowings

• → Italian: locusta
• → Old French: locuste
  • French: locuste
  • → Middle English: locuste, locust, locusta
    • English: locust
• → Portuguese: locusta
• → Romanian: locustă
• →? Old English: loppestre
  • Middle English: loppestere
    • English: lobster
    • Scots: lapster, labster
    • Yola: labstaar

References

• “locusta” on page 1145 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 673
• Ernout, Alfred; Meillet, Antoine (1985), “locusta”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots (in French), with additions and corrections of Jacques André, 4th edition, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, 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, →ISBN, pages 347-348

Further reading

• “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 with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 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

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Middle English

Noun

locusta

1. Alternative form of locuste