vespa

Inherited from Old Catalan vespa, from Latin vespa.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈbes.pə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈves.pə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈves.pa]

• Audio:

  (file)

vespa f (plural vespes)

1. wasp

• vesper

• “vespa”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “vespa”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “vespa” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “vespa” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Generalized from the Italian motor scooter brand name Vespa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋespɑ/, [ˈʋe̞s̠pɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -espɑ
• Syllabification^(key): ves‧pa
• Hyphenation^(key): ves‧pa

vespa (informal)

1. scooter (motorcycle or moped equipped with a platform for the operator's feet)

• skootteri

vespa f (plural vespas)

1. Vespa

• “vespa”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

vespa f (plural vespas)

1. alternative form of avespa (“wasp”)

• Rhymes: -ɛspa

vespa f (genitive singular vespu, nominative plural vespur)

1. hornet

Genericized trademark from Vespa.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛspa/ [ˈfɛs.pa]
• Rhymes: -ɛspa
• Syllabification: ves‧pa

vespa (plural vespa-vespa)

1. (colloquial) scooter

   Synonym: skuter

vespa (plural vespas)

1. wasp

• vespere
• vespiario

From Latin vespa

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛs.pa/
• Rhymes: -ɛspa
• Hyphenation: vè‧spa

• Audio:

  (file)

vespa f (plural vespe)

1. wasp
2. (motorcycling) alternative letter-case form of Vespa; motor scooter

   Coordinate term: lambretta

• vespaio
• vespina
• vespone
• vespetta

• → Spanish: vespa

• Vespidae on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^it
• Piaggio Vespa on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^it

Inherited from Proto-Italic *wospā, metathesized from earlier *wopsā, from Proto-Indo-European *wóbʰseh₂, from *webʰ- (“to weave”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Cognate with English wasp.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈwɛs.pa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈvɛs.pa]

vespa f (genitive vespae); first declension

1. wasp (insect)

First-declension noun.

Terms beginning with ⟨g⟩, ⟨gh⟩ and ⟨gu⟩ may have been conflated with or influenced by Frankish *wapsu (“wasp”).

• “vespa”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “vespa”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "vespa", 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)
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “vĕspa”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 707

vespa f (plural vespe)

1. wasp

• vespé
• vespun

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -espɐ, (Portugal) -eʃpɐ
• Hyphenation: ves‧pa

From Old Galician-Portuguese vespa, from Latin vespa.^[1][2]

vespa f (plural vespas)

1. wasp

   Synonyms: marimbondo, caba, cabatão

Borrowed from Italian Vespa.^[1][2]

vespa f (plural vespas)

1. motor scooter

• “vespa”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “vespa”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025

Borrowed from Italian vespa.

• IPA^(key): /ʋêspa/
• Hyphenation: ves‧pa

vȅspa f (Cyrillic spelling ве̏спа)

1. (informal) motor scooter

• “vespa”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

From Latin vespa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛspa/, [ˈvɛʃpa]
• Hyphenation: vès‧pa

vespa f (plural vespi)

1. wasp

Borrowed from Italian vespa. Doublet of avispa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbespa/ [ˈbes.pa]
• Rhymes: -espa
• Syllabification: ves‧pa

vespa f (plural vespas)

1. Vespa (brand name)
2. scooter (powered bicycle or tricycle)

• “vespa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

Genericized trademark from the Italian motor scooter brand Vespa.

vespa c

1. a motor scooter (small motorcycle or moped with a step-through frame)

   Synonyms: scooter, (when clear from context) skoter

• vespa in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• vespa in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• vespa in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)