silkworm

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sylkewyrme,^[2] inherited from Old English seolcwyrm,^{[3][4][5][2][6]} formed from Old English seolc (“silk”) + wyrm (“worm, serpent”),^[4] the words that became silk and worm.^[7][3][8] Bosworth–Toller enters it as seoluc-wyrm.^[9] Etymonline takes seolc from Latin sēricum (“silk”) and wyrm from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz.^[3] The parts were long often written apart; from about 1600 they were often hyphened.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The caterpillar that spins silk: Old English, in a glossary printed by Wright and Wülcker.^[7][6] Dictionary.com dates the word to before 1000,^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to before the 12th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The second element had a wide range in early English: Old English wyrm meant a serpent or dragon as well as an earthworm, and in Middle English the word was used of any crawling or slithering creature thought noxious.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the silkworm simply as the worm that spins silk, quoting Bacon and Dryden.^[10] The name also became a jibe: a person dressed in silk was called a silkworm in Beaumont and Fletcher (before 1625),^[7][8] and Steele used it in the Spectator of 1712 for a woman who haunts drapers' shops and handles the goods without buying.^[7] The word can also cover the larvae of other moths whose cocoons have commercial value.^[8][11][4]

Timeline

• before 1000 – Old English seolcwyrm, the silk-spinning caterpillar.^[2][7]
• before 1625 – contemptuous, a person who wears silk.^[7][8]
• 1712 – a woman who examines goods in drapers' shops without buying (obsolete).^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The caterpillar of the moth Bombyx mori, which feeds on mulberry leaves and spins a cocoon of silk before pupating; it is bred for this silk.^{[11][4][7][8]}
2. Any similar larva whose cocoon yields commercial silk: The farm raises two kinds of silkworm.^[11][4][8]
3. (rare) Used contemptuously: a person dressed in silk.^[7][8]

Word family

• silkworm moth

Related words

• silk
• worm

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins