Wiktionary

cicada

See also: Cicada and cicadă

English

edit
WOTD – 12 August 2015
 
An adult cicada
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Wikispecies has information on:

Alternative forms

edit

Etymology

edit
Etymology tree
Latin cicādabor.
English cicada

    Borrowed from Latin cicāda, ultimately onomatopoeic. Doublet of cicala.

    Pronunciation

    edit
    • (UK) IPA(key): /sɪˈkeɪ.də/, /sɪˈkɑː.də/, [sɪˈkʰeɪ̯.də], [sɪˈkʰɑː.də]
    • (US) IPA(key): /sɪˈkeɪ.də/, /sɪˈkɑ.də/, [sɪ̈ˈkʰeɪ̯.ɾə], [sɪ̈ˈkʰɑ.ɾə]
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -eɪdə, -ɑːdə

    Noun

    edit

    cicada (plural cicadas or cicadae or (archaic) cicadæ)

    1. Any of several insects in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with small eyes wide apart on the head and transparent well-veined wings.
      • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist‎[1], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 19 February 2013, page 172:
        Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
      1. The periodical cicada.
        • 2011, Robert Evans Snodgrass, Insects: Their Ways and Means of Living‎[2], page 217:
          The emergence years of the principal cicada broods have now been recorded for a long time, and the oldest record of a swarm is that of the appearance of the “locusts” in New England two hundred and ninety-five years ago.
        • 2013 May 16, Laura Kroon, “Magicidada coming to New Jersey on May 27”, in Hunterdon County Democrat:
          Last year, the Brood I cicadas were found in Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee. The cicadas that will emerge in New Jersey this year are part of Brood II or The East Coast Brood. They will also be found in Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

    Synonyms

    edit

    Hyponyms

    edit

    Derived terms

    edit

    Translations

    edit

    See also

    edit

    Latin

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

      Unknown. Probably an onomatopoeic loanword from a lost Mediterranean substrate language.[1] Compare also Sanskrit चिश्चिर (ciścira, “cicada”).

      This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.
      Particularly: “A cursory search for चिश्चिर (ciścira) returns a result at https://www.learnsanskrit.cc. However, print dictionaries + etymological dictionaries don't seem to mention the Sanskrit word. Is there other corroboration for its existence?”

      Pronunciation

      edit

      Noun

      edit

      cicāda f (genitive cicādae); first declension

      1. cicada, tree-cricket
        • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Vergilius, Georgicon 3.327–330:
          Inde, ubi quarta sitim caeli collegerit hora,
          Et cantu quaerulae rumpent arbusta cicadae,
          Ad puteos aut alta greges ad stagna jubebo
          currentem ilignis potare canalibus undam;
          […]
          • Translation by James B. Greenough, 1900
            When heaven's fourth hour draws on the thickening drought,
            And shrill cicalas pierce the brake with song,
            Then at the well-springs bid them, or deep pools,
            From troughs of holm-oak quaff the running wave:
            […]

      Declension

      edit

      First-declension noun.

      singular plural
      nominative cicāda cicādae
      genitive cicādae cicādārum
      dative cicādae cicādīs
      accusative cicādam cicādās
      ablative cicādā cicādīs
      vocative cicāda cicādae

      Descendants

      edit
      • → English: cicada
      • → Galician: cicada
      • → German: Zikade
      • → Macedonian: цикада (cikada)
      • → Polish: cykada
      • → Romanian: cicadă
      • → Russian: цика́да f (cikáda)

      Reflexes of the late variant cicāla:

      Reflexes of an assumed variant *cicār(r)a:

      References

      edit
      1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 112

      Further reading

      edit
      • “cicada”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
      • “cicada”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
      • "cicada", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
      • “cicada”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
      • “cicada”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

      Romanian

      edit

      Noun

      edit

      cicada

      1. definite nominative/accusative singular of cicadă
      Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=cicada&oldid=90837246"