Etymologically
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lobster

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈlɒb.stə/[1]
  • US: /ˈlɑb.stɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lopster, also lopister and later lobstere,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English loppestre, also lopystre and lopustre,[5][6][7] borrowed from Latin locusta (“lobster or similar crustacean; locust”), irregularly altered.[5][8][3][6][9] The change of Latin c to p (later, from the late 14th century, by b) is unexplained;[5][8][6] it may be due to the influence of loppe (“spider”), also lobbe,[8][3][10][2] and Skeat thought of a confusion with loppe in the sense of flea.[11] The ending was assimilated to the Old English feminine agent nouns in -estre, the source of -ster, which came close to the sound of the Latin ending.[5][8][7] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster instead derive the word from loppe itself,[12][13] Barnhart comparing lobbe with Middle Low German lobbe (“thick hanging lip”) and Old Norse lubba (“large cod”).[4] The Latin word is of unknown origin; de Vaan, quoted by Etymonline, compares only lacerta (“lizard; mackerel”).[8] According to the OED it first meant a lobster or a similar crustacean and was applied to the locust because of the likeness in shape; the older sense lived on in Late Latin, as French langouste and Old Cornish legast (“lobster”) show.[5][8][14] English took the same Latin word again as locust.[10][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The large marine crustacean: recorded in Old English glossaries,[5] before 1000 according to Barnhart, who dates the Middle English form lopister before 1311–12 and lobster to 1390.[12][4] The Old English word could also mean the locust,[8][16] and the Middle English Dictionary records it for a cuttlefish and for a growth in the nose as well.[2]

Semantic evolution

The meaning "flesh of the lobster as food" is recorded from 1789,[5] and since 1778 the name has been applied, with a qualifying word, to other crustaceans such as the Norway lobster and the spiny lobster.[5][7] In Australia and New Zealand it has meant a freshwater crayfish since 1826.[5][7][13] As a contemptuous name for a British soldier it dates from the 1640s: it was first given to a regiment of Roundhead cuirassiers whose jointed plate armour suggested a lobster's tail, and later to soldiers for their red coats, the colour of a boiled lobster.[5][7][15][14][17] In the slang of the late 17th century a lobster was simply a redcoat soldier.[17] Dekker used it in 1602 as a term of abuse, perhaps for a red-faced man,[5] and since 1896 American slang has used it for a slow-witted or gullible person.[5][15] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a crustaceous fish".[18] In Australian slang a lobster is a $20 note, from its red colour,[17] and in Australian prison slang a twenty-year sentence.[17]

Timeline

  • before 1000 – Old English loppestre, the lobster; also the locust.[4][8][5]
  • before 1311–12 – Middle English lopister.[4]
  • 1390 – the form lobster.[4]
  • 1602 – a term of abuse, perhaps for a red-faced man (obsolete by 1616).[5]
  • c. 1643 – a British soldier, first a Roundhead cuirassier.[5][8]
  • 1778 – other crustaceans, as in spiny lobster.[5]
  • 1789 – the flesh of the lobster as food.[5]
  • 1826 – in Australia and New Zealand, a freshwater crayfish.[5]
  • 1896 – US slang, a gullible or stupid person.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A large marine decapod crustacean with stalked eyes, a long tail and a first pair of legs ending in large pincers, of the genus Homarus: The fishermen hauled up a lobster in every pot.[19][13][5]
  2. Any of several similar crustaceans, especially the spiny lobster.[19][13][5]
  3. The flesh of these animals, eaten as food: lobster with melted butter.[19][5]
  4. (Australia and New Zealand) A freshwater crayfish.[13][7][5]
  5. (archaic, derogatory) A British soldier, from the red coat; also boiled lobster.[13][7][5]
  6. (US slang) A stupid, awkward or gullible person.[5][17]

Verb

  1. To fish for or catch lobsters.[13]

Word family

  • lobsterer
  • lobsterlike
  • lobsterback
  • lobsterman
  • lobster pot
  • lobster roll
  • lobster shift
  • lobster thermidor

Usage notes

In East Anglian dialect lobster also meant the stoat;[20] the OED records this word from before 1496 and derives it from lob and stert, a variant of start in the sense "tail".[5] A jocular lobster was also a bowler of lobs at cricket, from 1889.[5][7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  17. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  19. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  20. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)