cockroach

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkɒkɹəʊt͡ʃ/ (UK); /ˈkɑkɹoʊt͡ʃ/, /ˈkɑkəɹoʊt͡ʃ/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish cucaracha (“cockroach; chafer, beetle”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from cuca “a kind of caterpillar”,^[2][4][5] reshaped by folk etymology as if from English cock and roach.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

An insect of the genus Blatta, especially the large dark-brown household pest (1624).^[7][4] The first recorded use, cacarootch, is in a 1624 work by the colonist John Smith;^[2][5] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1623.^[3]

Semantic evolution

English speakers did not simply borrow the Spanish word but made it look like familiar English words,^[2] first cacarootch and then, from 1657, cockroche.^[2] Folk etymology also connected the first part with caca “excrement”, perhaps because of the insect's smell.^[5] It is also called simply roach.^[6]

Timeline

• 1624 – cacarootch, the insect.^[2][7][4]
• 1657 – the form cockroche.^[2]
• 1756 – cockroach apple.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Any of numerous flat-bodied, fast-moving, chiefly nocturnal insects of the order Blattodea, several of which are common household pests.
2. (derogatory) A term of abuse for a person regarded as despicable.

Word family

• roach

Related words

• cucaracha

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press