Other forms: wasps
A wasp is a stinging insect with a narrow black and yellow body. Sharper-looking than a bee, and worse tempered.
Unlike a bee it can sting repeatedly, since its sting has no barb, which is why one at a picnic causes so much alarm. They are useful predators for most of the summer and only become a nuisance in late season when the nest stops needing them. A wasp nest is made of chewed wood pulp. The adjective waspish means sharply and irritably critical, which is a fair transfer of the insect's reputation.
1nounwaspA stinging insect with a narrow waist and yellow and black markings.
“A wasp got into the car on the motorway.”
The wasp is named for weaving. The Proto-Indo-European word behind it comes from a root meaning to braid or to weave, after the papery nest the insect builds.
Middle English
wasp
English, today
wasp
Built from
From Middle English wasp. Middle English wappes, waps, wasp, waspe, from Old English wæfs, wæps, wæsp, from Proto-West Germanic wapsu, from Proto-Germanic wapsō (“wasp”), from Proto-Indo-European wóbʰseh₂ (“wasp”), from webʰ- (“to braid, weave”), referring to the insect's woven nests. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA