A bug generally refers to small insects or similar arthropods, often seen as pests. While the term is commonly used for various tiny creatures, not all insects are true bugs. Additionally, other arthropods like spiders and mites are often incorrectly labeled as “bugs” in everyday language. In this section we do it as well, sorry.
Scientifically, “true bugs” belong to the order Hemiptera, characterized by piercing-sucking mouthparts, partially thickened wings, and incomplete metamorphosis.
Bee
The term “bee” is part of a “swarm” of languages originating from an ancient Indo-European root *bʰey-, spanning from Icelandic “bý(fluga)” to Bulgarian “пчела” (pchela).
Romance languages form a “colony” in the southwest derived from Latin “apis” or “apicula” (except Romanian): Spanish “abeja”, French “abeille”, or Venetian “Eva”. Interestingly, “apis” have traditionally been hypothesized as Proto-Indo-European *e/a(m)p-i-. If accurate, the meaning would be akin to “stinging insect”.
A third linguistic family, Proto-Indo-Iranian *mákš, is shared by Kurdish, Hungarian, and Finnish, despite geographical distances.
Grasshopper
The word for this insect is quite easy to analyze from Fench “sauterelle”, which stems from “sauter”, to Bulgarian скакалец, which comes from ска́чам (skáčam), all of them meaning “jump”. Because the ability to hop is the most remarkable of other insects.
Also very simple to analyze the English name: “grass” and “hopper.” The former refers to the plant upon which these insects often feed, while the latter suggests their remarkable jumping ability. Most but not all of the Germanic languages uses this image. In Icelandic, they jump meadows. In a much less realistic fashion, in Spanish, “saltamontes” merges “salta” (to jump) and “montes” (grass or hills).
Some languages just derived it from “jump”. No grass, no meadow, no hill. If we move eastwards the most common metaphor is “little horses (or mares)”. We can find in Polish “konik” and Italian “cavalletta”. Even in German, there is a “hay horse”.
Ladybird or ladybug
What are ladybirds (also known as ladybugs)? They are insects, not birds, and certainly not ladies—so where does the name come from? When we look at a map, the picture becomes even more confusing: the variety of names across languages seems diverse and almost random. Let’s start with the most obvious connection.
Mary’s insect
It is no coincidence that many languages include a reference to Mary in the name. In Catalan we find marieta, in Latvian mārīte, and in several other languages Mary appears as part of a compound word, such as German Marienkäfer or Icelandic maríubjalla, which has the same meaning “Mary’s beetle”. These names originate from medieval beliefs linking the insect to the Virgin Mary. Some languages took a more imaginative approach. Danish, for example, uses mariehøne, literally “Mary’s chicken.” Finally, in English the name does not directly include Mary, but “ladybird” (or “ladybug”) comes from “Our Lady’s bird,” once again referring to the Virgin Mary. In this same group we could include the language where a different female is used like Portuguese Joaninha “Jane” or Katicabogár in Hungarian is “Kate’s bug“
A cow bug
Cows and ladybugs – what do they have in common? Perhaps the spots. However, an even more intriguing link is a shared name found in several languages: “God’s cow.” This expression appears in many Slavic languages (for example, Belarusian каро́ўка-баго́ўка, karówka-bahówka) as well as in Celtic languages (such as Irish bóín Dé).
Tick
