hornet

From Middle English hernet, from Old English hyrnetu, hyrnete, from Proto-West Germanic *hurnutu, from Proto-Germanic *hurznutō (compare German Hornisse), alteration of Proto-Germanic *hursulǭ (compare Dutch horzel), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂sro- (“hornet”, literally “the one with horns (antennae)”), from *ḱerh₂- (“horn”) (compare Welsh creyryn (“gadfly”), Latin crābrō (“hornet”), Lithuanian širšė (“wasp”), Old Church Slavonic сръшень (srŭšenĭ, “hornet”), Albanian grerë, grenzë (“wasp, hornet”)).

cog

A large wasp, of the genus Vespa, having a brown-and-yellow-striped body and the ability to inflict a serious sting.

greth

a large wasp, of the genus Vespa, with a brown-and-yellow-striped body


jasper

en-noun

jasper (countable and uncountable, plural jaspers)

From Middle English jasper, jaspre, from Old French jaspre, a variant of jaspe (modern French jaspe), from Latin iaspis, from Ancient Greek ἴασπις (íaspis).

(obsolete) Any bright-coloured kind of chalcedony apart from cornelian.

An opaque, impure variety of quartz, of red, yellow, and other dull colors, breaking conchoidally with a smooth surface.


jasper

(UK, West Country, Somerset, colloquial) A wasp.

And list'nin to some big out-a-town jasper / Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin' / Not a wholesome trottin' race, no!

1957, Meredith Willson, “Ya Got Trouble”, in The Music Man:

"I stood there through almost an hour of it before they called Rooster Cogburn to the stand. I had guessed wrong as to which one he was, picking out a younger and slighter man with a badge on his shirt. And I was surprised when an old one-eyed jasper that was built along the lines of Grover Cleveland went up and was sworn."

1968, Charles Portis, “True Grit”, in The Saturday Evening Post:

Standing on the corner like a just-got-in-town jasper

1975, “Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)”, in Nighthawks at the Diner, performed by Tom Waits:

“That jasper,” sniggered Darby, “never pulled out his ‘dummy’ for nothing but pissing, I bet you!”

2006, Thomas Pynchon, “The Light over the Ranges”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 110:

(US, slang) A person, a guy, especially seen as naïve or simple.


media wasp

A large European wasp, Dolichovespula media, that became established in Britain in the 1980s


vespid

Any social insect of the family Vespidae including wasps and hornets


yellow jacket

From yellow + jacket.
* (pentobarbital sodium): Named after the yellow capsule of the Nembutal brand.

Police and hundreds of so-called “yellow jackets” protesting against high taxes and living costs have clashed in Brussels as the movement that started in France two weeks ago gained traction in Belgium.

2018 November 30, “Belgian police and ‘yellow jacket’ protesters clash in Brussels”, in Independent.ie:

If you’re seeking the cause of the Dutch agriculture and fisheries protests, the Canadian trucker convoy, the yellow-jackets in France, the farmer rebellion in India a few years ago, the recent catastrophic collapse of Sri Lanka, or the energy crisis in Europe and Australia, you can instruct yourself by the recent pronouncements from Deloitte.

2022 August 15, Jordan Peterson, “Peddlers of environmental doom have shown their true totalitarian colours”, in The Telegraph:

Synonym of yellow vest (“member of a French protest movement which started in late 2018”).


marabunta

From the 1954 movie The Naked Jungle, perhaps directly from the other etymology, or from a parallel South American source, though this would apparently have been the first time it was applied to ants.

A kind of army ant said to devour every living thing in its path


marabunta

Uncertain. Perhaps ultimately from Kimbundu marimbondo, plural of rimbondo (“Sceliphron spirifex, a bright yellow and black wasp”), possibly via Portuguese marimbondo. Compare Sranan Tongo marbonsu (“wasp of the genus Polistes”).

cog

GE Bodkin (1918) “Notes on some British Guiana Hymenoptera exclusive of the Formicidae”, in Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London, volume 1917, Vol. 65: “The local name is marabunta. Destroying marabunta nests with a wad of dried palm leaves attached to a long pole soaked in kerosene and ignited is an interesting operation for an onlooker at a respectful distance”

Any of several large wasps known for their painful stings:

In and out he flies, bringing each time a tiny daub of mud, the building material of his choice. Before however, he has quite finished his dome or sealed it up he introduces a slender green worm, or more, to serve, it would seem, as larder for the children when they become conscious of their blissful existence and when they feel the pangs of hunger! This species of marabunta is often called the mason bee or fly, on account of its building powers or propensities.

Ignatius Scoles (1885) Sketches of African and Indian Life in British Guiana

(Caribbean) Polybia occidentalis and other species


eumenine

Of, or pertaining to, the potter wasps of the subfamily Eumeninae.


mason wasp

Crabbe continued to lie, eyes slowly following the questing flight of a mason-wasp, flat on his back, hands folded.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 383:


potter wasp

A wasp of a group in the subfamily Eumeninae of family Vespidae.


eumenid

(zoology) Any member of the vespid subfamily Eumeninae, the potter wasps.


Euro wasp

The debate over greater European integration took an unexpected twist yesterday with the arrival of Euro wasp in Britain.

2001 May 26, Stewart Payne, “Alarm over invasion of the Euro wasps”, in Telegraph (online):

(British) A median wasp (Dolichovespula media), an aggressive European wasp, which spread from the continent to Britain in 1980s.


polistine

Any of the wasps of the subfamily Polistinae.


stenogastrine

Any of the wasps of the subfamily Stenogastrinae.


masarid

(entomolology) Any member of the vespoid family Masaridae, which is now generally classified as the subfamily Masarinae of the family Vespidae.


Asian giant hornet

en-noun

Asian giant hornet (plural Asian giant hornets)

Vespa mandarinia
Vespa mandarinia#Translingual

Vespa mandarinia, the world's largest hornet, native to temperate and tropical Eastern Asia, and having a powerful sting.


paper wasp

Any wasp in the vespid subfamily Polistinae, known for making paper-like nests out of fibers from dead wood and plant stems.


Japanese giant hornet

Japanese giant hornet (plural Japanese giant hornets)

A flying insect, Vespa mandarinia japonica, known for being a subspecies of the world's largest hornet.


masarine

In contrast to the majority of bees, which transport pollen externally, masarines take pollen mixed with nectar from flowers with deep corollas (Gess 1996).

2007, James H. Hunt, The Evolution of Social Wasps, page 28:

(entomology) Any wasp in the subfamily Masarinae.


pollen wasp

Any wasp in the vespid subfamily Masarinae, which are unique among the vespids in feeding their larvae with pollen and nectar, instead of with insects.


bald-faced hornet

bald-faced hornet (plural bald-faced hornets)

A North American yellowjacket distinguished by its black and white coloration with white marks on the face and by its hornet-like aerial nests (Dolichovespula maculata).


meat bee

From meat + bee, so called because it resembles a bee and is known for feeding on meat and other human food left exposed outdoors.

(Canada, US, informal) The yellowjacket.


blackjacket

The bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata, another species of yellow jacket with similar coloration.


European hornet

European hornet (plural European hornets)

There are eight UK species of yellow-jackets, alongside their bigger cousin, the European hornet.

2017 August 25, Mark Shardlow, The Guardian:

A large species of hornet (Vespa crabro) found across Eurasia and North America.


warrior wasp

Any of various wasps of ferocious appearance and aggressive behavior, especially in taxa:

Synoeca, found in South and Central America.


murder hornet

Calque of Japanese 殺人スズメバチ (literally “murder hornet”), from 殺人 (satsujin, “さつじん”)+スズメバチ (suzumebachi, “雀蜂”), equivalent to murder + hornet. From its ability to kill people through its painful venomous stings, which can pierce through most regular beekeeper suits, killing some dozens of people a year in Japan; and its propensity for killing off honeybee colonies.

calque

Their murderous rampages on bee colonies have earned them the nickname ‘murder hornets’ from entomologists.

2017 January 1, “The Asian Giant Hornet, The Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Is The Stuff Of Nightmares”, in All That's Interesting:

2020, "Deadly Hornet Massacres a Mouse on Video, They're Huge", TMZ
It's unclear if this is, in fact, a murder hornet

2020, "The murder hornet is the 2020 B-plot you probably didn’t see coming", Kim Lyons, The Verge
Some days the news is upbeat and interesting and then other days the writers of the script for 2020: The Horror Show throw in a murder hornet plot twist because a pandemic is apparently not terrifying enough without two-inch hornets that rip the heads off of honeybees.

2020, "Murder Hornets Are In Canada Because 2020 Just Keeps On Going", Sima Shakeri, Huffington Post
The New York Times reported about the hornets on Saturday that shared graphic details of the piles of honeybee corpses left behind after murder hornets infiltrated their hives.

2020, " "Murder hornets" have now entered the U.S. — and they could decimate the honeybee population ", Li Cohen, CBS News
But murder hornets become most dangerous from late summer to early fall, when they ravage through honey bee populations.

Winter is on its way out. The days are getting longer, vaccinations are ramping up and an end to the pandemic could be in sight. But murder hornets don't care about any of that.

2021 March 17, Maria Morava, Scottie Andrew, “Murder hornet season is around the corner”, in CNN.com:

Asian giant hornet
Asian giant hornet#English

(informal) Synonym of Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) ^((See discussion))


ringed paper wasp

en-noun

ringed paper wasp (plural ringed paper wasps)

Polistes annularis
Polistes annularis#Translingual

A paper wasp of species Polistes annularis.


camoati

Polybia occidentalis, a social wasp of South and Central America.