insect

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small animal with six legs and a hard outer shell, and usually one or two pairs of wings, such as an ant, fly, or beetle.

   A bee is an insect that helps flowers grow.

2. 2
   noun

   A mean, worthless person who deserves no respect.

   He treated the waiters like dirt, behaving like a real insect.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Insect was formed in the 17th century from Latin animal insectum, “segmented animal,” as a translation of Greek zōion entomon. It originally covered various small, cold-blooded creatures with divided bodies, including spiders, before narrowing to its modern biological sense; its Latin root is secare, “to cut.”

From Middle French insecte, from Latin īnsectum, from īnsectus (“cut into, cut up, with a notched or divided body”), from perfect passive participle of īnsecō (“to cut into, to cut up”), from in- + secō (“to cut”), from the notion that the insect's body is "cut into" three sections (head, thorax, abdomen). Calque of Ancient Greek ἔντομον (éntomon, “insect”), from ἔντομος (éntomos, “cut into pieces”).

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary