cicada
English
WOTD – 12 August 2015
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin cicāda, ultimately onomatopoeic. Doublet of cicala.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /sɪˈkeɪ.də/, /sɪˈkɑː.də/, [sɪˈkʰeɪ̯.də], [sɪˈkʰɑː.də]
- (US) IPA(key): /sɪˈkeɪ.də/, /sɪˈkɑ.də/, [sɪ̈ˈkʰeɪ̯.ɾə], [sɪ̈ˈkʰɑ.ɾə]
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪdə, -ɑːdə
Noun
cicada (plural cicadas or cicadae or (archaic) cicadæ)
- Any of several insects in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with small eyes wide apart on the head and transparent well-veined wings.
- 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 2, page 172:
- Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
- The periodical cicada.
- 2011, Robert Evans Snodgrass, Insects: Their Ways and Means of Living[2], page 217:
- The emergence years of the principal cicada broods have now been recorded for a long time, and the oldest record of a swarm is that of the appearance of the “locusts” in New England two hundred and ninety-five years ago.
- 2013 May 16, Laura Kroon, “Magicidada coming to New Jersey on May 27”, in Hunterdon County Democrat:
- Last year, the Brood I cicadas were found in Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee. The cicadas that will emerge in New Jersey this year are part of Brood II or The East Coast Brood. They will also be found in Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Synonyms
Hyponyms
- (periodical cicada): seventeen-year locust, decim periodical cicada
Derived terms
Translations
any of several insects of the order Hemiptera
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See also
Latin
Etymology
Unknown. Probably an onomatopoeic loanword from a lost Mediterranean substrate language.[1] Compare also Sanskrit चिश्चिर (ciścira, “cicada”).
Pronunciation
- cicāda: (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [kɪˈkaː.da]
- cicāda: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [t͡ʃiˈkaː.d̪a]
Noun
cicāda f (genitive cicādae); first declension
Declension
First-declension noun.
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | cicāda | cicādae |
genitive | cicādae | cicādārum |
dative | cicādae | cicādīs |
accusative | cicādam | cicādās |
ablative | cicādā | cicādīs |
vocative | cicāda | cicādae |
Descendants
Reflexes of the late variant cicāla:
Reflexes of an assumed variant *cicār(r)a:
References
- Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1984) “cigarra”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume II (Ce–F), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 72
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 112
Further reading
- “cicada”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “cicada”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "cicada", 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)
- cicada in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “cicada”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
Romanian
Noun
cicada
- definite nominative/accusative singular of cicadă