Other forms: bookworms
A bookworm is a person who would rather read than do almost anything else. A real bookworm, called her a bookworm, a bookworm since childhood.
It is affectionate now, though it began as mild mockery of somebody buried in books. There are real insects that damage books, mostly beetle larvae, and the human bookworm is named after them rather than the other way round.
1nounbookwormA person who would rather read than do almost anything else.
“My sister is a real bookworm; she always has her nose in a novel.”
bookworm is a person.
Book plus worm, from the sixteenth century, first for the grubs that bore through paper and binding.
From book + worm. Compare West Frisian boekewjirm (“bookworm”), Dutch boekworm, boekwurm, boekenwurm (“bookworm”), Low German Bökerworm (“bookworm”), German Bücherwurm (“bookworm”), Danish bogorm (“bookworm”), Norwegian bokorm (“bookworm”), Faroese bókaormur (“bookworm”), Icelandic bókaormur (“bookworm”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in School & Learning