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.
Ant
Most European languages are united by a common thread: the word for ant. From the Galician formiga to the Romanian furnică, and from Greek μυρμήγκι (myrmígki) to Finnish muurahainen. Surprising, huh? We can find the traces of a single Proto-Indo-European ancestor: *mórwis.
Interestingly, some linguists suggest that this word might have evolved through a process of internal sounds swapping (metathesis) from *wórmis, the ancient ancestor of the word worm. It turns out that, to our distant ancestors, the ant was simply a “little crawling thing.”
Some exceptions. The German word Ameise and the English word “ant” are related to each other, but not to worm-related roots. Likewise, Hungarian mangya and Udmurt кузьыли (kuźyľi) are unrelated. In Asia, we find Turkic roots such as kutke and kunse, which appear closely related: Turkish karınca exemplifies the former set of forms, while Kazakh құмырсқа (qūmyrsqa) represents the latter.
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.
My favourite one: бал ҡорто (bal qorto), from Bashkir, meaning “honey insect.” Pretty straightforward.
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
A tick, like a spider or scorpion, is an arachnid. It is also a parasit that attaches itself to the skin of a terrestrial vertebrate and feeds on its blood. The English word tick is of Germanic origin, deriving from Proto-West Germanic *tīkō. It may be related to Armenian տիզ (tiz), possibly through a common Proto-Indo-European root reconstructed as *deyǵʰ-.
The origin of Hungarian kullancs is unknown, but the word may have been borrowed from a Slavic language, Slovak kliešť, which derives from Proto-Slavic *klěščь (maybe related to *klěšča, meaning “claw” or “pincer”). Spanish garrapata also has no firmly established etymology and is often thought to be a pre-Roman word.
Worms
In general, when we think of worms, we imagine long, soft-bodied, legless animals. But which animals are we referring to exactly? The answer is not simple, because worm is a broad and often informal term rather than the name of a single biological group. The word may refer to:
- Earthworms and leeches, which belong to the phylum Annelida
- Roundworms, which belong to the phylum Nematoda
- Flatworms, which belong to the phylum Platyhelminthes
- Parasitic worms, which may belong to several different animal groups
- Insect larvae, such as moth caterpillars, beetle larvae, fly larvae, and other similar creatures
Other animals are also called “worms” because they have worm-like bodies, even though they are actually lizards or mollusks. A slow-worm, for example, is a legless lizard, while a shipworm is a marine mollusk. This broad and flexible usage makes the word difficult to map onto a single scientific category.
The history of the word is equally complex. English worm, German Wurm, and Icelandic ormur are related forms that developed through the Germanic forms probably developed through Proto-Germanic wurmiz, and Galician and Italian verme, by contrast, descend from Latin vermis. Ultimately both originated from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root wr̥mis, meaning “worm” or “serpent.”
Another proposed Proto-Indo-European form is kʷr̥mis, also meaning “worm” or “maggot.” Possible descendants or related forms include Albanian krimb, Lithuanian kirmėlė, Russian червь (červʹ), Breton preñv, and Kurdish kirm or kurm. The exact relationship between **wr̥mis** and **kʷr̥mis** is debated: some linguists treat them as related variants, while others reconstruct them as separate ancient forms.
