Other forms: beetles
A beetle is an insect with hard wing cases that meet in a line down its back. A black beetle, beetles under the log, a stag beetle.
About one animal species in four described so far is a beetle, which is why Haldane is said to have remarked that the creator had an inordinate fondness for them. The hard cases are the front wings, folded over the flying pair beneath.
1nounbeetleAn insect with hard wing cases over its back.
“A shiny black beetle crawled across the garden path.”
beetle is an insect.
Old English bitula comes from bitan, to bite. A beetle is literally a biter.
Proto-Germanic
*bitilô
Proto-West Germanic
*bitilō
Old English
bitula
Middle English
bitle
English, today
beetle
Built from
From Middle English bitle, from Old English bitula, from Proto-West Germanic bitilō, from Proto-Germanic bitilô. From Middle English bitle, bityl, bytylle, from Old English bitula, bitela, bītel (“beetle”), from Proto-West Germanic bitilō, bītil, from Proto-Germanic bitilô, bītilaz (“that which tends to bite, biter, beetle”), equivalent to bite + le. Cognate with Old High German bicco (“beetle”), Danish bille (“beetle”), Icelandic bitil, bitul (“a bite, bit”), Faroese bitil (“small piece, bittock”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA