Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, especially migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria).
nounA fruit or pod of a carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua).
Sentence Examples
The locust made a big jump.
That's not a grasshopper. It's a locust!
The Spanish word "langosta" can mean either "lobster" or "locust".
CEFR Practice Quiz
A swarm of ____ destroyed all the crops in the field within hours.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A massive swarm of ____ descended on the fields, destroying all the crops in a very short period of time.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *lek-der.?
Latin locusta
Anglo-Norman locustebor.
Middle English locuste
English locust
Inherited from Middle English locuste, locust, from Anglo-Norman locuste, Middle French locuste, and their source, Latin locustam (“locust, crustacean, lobster”, accusative of locusta). Doublet of langouste.
Noun sense 3 (“kind of tree”), originally referring to the carob (compare locust bean), is based on the resemblance of the trees' beanlike seed pods to the insect and is likely a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ἀκρίς (akrís).
Noun sense 5 (“mainlander”) is a semantic loan from Cantonese 蝗蟲 /蝗虫 (wong4 cung4), also meaning "locust".
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Among other articles, they brought with them a great quantity of locusts, which are a kind of pulse, sweet and pleasant to the palate, and in shape resembling French beans, but longer."
— 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 9, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I:
"I took my flogging like a stone. If I had sung, some of the convicts would have given me some lush with a locust in it (laudanum hocussing), and when I was asleep would have given me a crack on the head that would have laid me straight."
— 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:
"This Philip and the black-faced swarms of Spain,
The hardest, cruellest people in the world,
Come locusting upon us, eat us up,
Confiscate lands, goods, money […]"
— 1875, Alfred Tennyson, Queen Mary: A Drama, London: Henry S. King & Co., →OCLC, (please specify the page):