English
termite
Termite comes from Latin termitēs, and goes back to tarmes ‘woodworm’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtarmesas termes, plural‘woodworm’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEtermitēs
- Englishearliest quotation 1802termite
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtarmesas termes, plural‘woodworm’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEtermitēs
- Englishearliest quotation 1802termite
Earliest quotation: 1802, Francis William Blagdon, Modern Discoveries; or: “Linnæus describes this insect under the Latin name of…”
The story
Inferred singular of termites, the plural form borrowed from Latin termites, the plural of Latin termes (‘woodworm’), which was used for termites by Linnaeus.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn’
turn, throw, tournament, thread, tragic, threshold, trout, detrimental, tyrone, detriment, detour, thrash, tourney, attrition, triage, tribulation, tourniquet, detritus, truant, trite, tyro, thresh, derma, 42 more
Today it means
noun A white-bodied, wood-consuming insect of the infraorder Isoptera, in the order Blattodea.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin tarmes / termite