Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
Any of many types of stinging flying insect resembling a hornet.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any of the members of suborder Apocrita, excepting the ants (family Formicidae) and bees (clade Anthophila).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: biology, entomology, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any of the members of suborder Apocrita, excepting the ants (family Formicidae) and bees (clade Anthophila).
Any of the members of the family Vespidae.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: biology, entomology, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A person who behaves in an angry or insolent way, hence waspishly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Alternative letter-case form of WASP (“white Anglo-Saxon Protestant”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Acronym of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, a member of the supposed ruling class of America.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Initialism of Women Airforce Service Pilots.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, historical, initialism
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Alternative letter-case form of WASP.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To move like a wasp; to buzz.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
social or solitary hymenopterans typically having a slender body with the abdomen attached by a narrow stalk and having a formidable sting
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: hymenopterous insect, hymenopteran, hymenopteron, hymenopter
Narrower terms: vespid, vespid wasp, velvet ant, sphecoid wasp, sphecoid, gall wasp, gallfly, cynipid wasp, cynipid gall wasp
noun
a white person of Anglo-Saxon ancestry who belongs to a Protestant denomination
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: white Anglo-Saxon Protestant
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: White, White person, Caucasian, Protestant
History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *webh- Proto-Indo-European *wóbhseh2 Proto-Germanic *wapsō Proto-West Germanic *wapsu Old English wæps Middle English wasp English wasp Inherited from Middle English wappes, waps, wasp, waspe, from Old English wæfs, wæps, wæsp, from Proto-West Germanic *wapsu, from Proto-Germanic *wapsō (“wasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *wóbhseh2 (“wasp”), from *webh- (“to braid, weave”), referring to the insect's woven nests. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian wesp (“wasp”), Saterland Frisian Häspe (“wasp”), West Frisian waps (“wasp”), Alemannic German Wespi (“wasp”), Bavarian Weps, Wepsn (“wasp”), Cimbrian bèspa (“wasp”), Dutch and Vilamovian wesp (“wasp”), German Wespe (“wasp”), Low German Weps, Wepse (“wasp”), Yiddish וועספּ (vesp), וועספּע (vespe, “wasp”), Danish hveps (“wasp”), Norwegian Bokmål veps (“wasp”), Norwegian Nynorsk kvefs (“wasp”); also Cornish goghi (“wasp”), Irish foich, foiche, puch (“wasp”), Welsh gwchi (“drone”), Latin vespa (“wasp”), Greek ανυφαίνω (anyfaíno), υφαίνω (yfaíno, “to weave”), Albanian vej (“to weave”), Latvian lapsene (“wasp”), Lithuanian vapsvà (“wasp”), Old Prussian wobse (“wasp”), Belarusian аса́ (asá, “wasp”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian оса́ (osá, “wasp”), Czech vosa (“wasp”), Polish, Slovene, and Slovak osa (“wasp”), Serbo-Croatian о̀са, òsa (“wasp”), Armenian մոզ (moz, “a kind of fly that bites horses and cattle”), Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬡𐬲𐬀𐬐𐬀 (vaβžaka, “scorpion”), Central Kurdish مۆز (moz, “gadfly, horsefly”), Mazanderani ماز (mâz, “fly”), Northern Kurdish moz (“wasp; gadfly, horsefly; bee; bumblebee”), Persian بوز (bavz / bowz, “wasp”), Tocharian A wäp- (“to weave”), Tocharian B wāp- (“to weave”), Sanskrit उभ्नाति (ubhnāti, “to hurt, kill; to cover”). Metathesis of /s/ and /p/ was both a process of some generality within English (compare grasp from Middle English grapsen, and—affecting other plosives—ascian ~ acsian (“to ask”)) and common in the reflexes of *wóps-eh2 (“wasp”) in particular, as the aforementioned Germanic cognates (and non-Germanic cognates like Latin vespa) evince.
Across languages
218 source translations are retained for this English entry.
