cockroach

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“
His Mona Lisa painted on the back of a cockroach is a masterpiece in its own right.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Any of numerous oval, flat-bodied insects of the family Blattidae, including several species that are common household pests.
  2. Word History
    The word for cockroach in Spanish is cucaracha, which should certainly set anyone with an eye for etymology to thinking. Users of English did not simply borrow the Spanish word, however. Instead, they made it conform in appearance to other English words: cock, the word for rooster, and roach, the name of a fish. We do not know exactly why these words were chosen other than their resemblance to the two parts of the original Spanish word. We do know that the first recorded use of the word comes from a 1624 work by the colonist John Smith. The form Smith used, cacarootch, is closer to the Spanish. A form more like our own, cockroche, is first recorded in 1657.

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Examples (47)

  • No problem for the cockroach -- they can grow them back, if you care. —  Robert Full on animal movement
  • This is a death's head cockroach -- this is an American cockroach you think you don't have in your kitchen. —  Robert Full on engineering and evolution
  • It was aware of them, but only as a cockroach might be aware of the jars and boxes in the cupboard it inhabits, as potential sources of what it needed. —  F ;SF; - vol 101 issue 06 - December 2001
  • His Mona Lisa painted on the back of a cockroach is a masterpiece in its own right. —  About.com Weird News
  • Man is a lot like the cockroach - consistantly breeding, difficult to annihilate, and adaptable to many harsh conditions. —  Propeller Most Popular Stories
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This word has been looked up 121 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. By folk etymology from obsolete cacarootch, from Spanish cucaracha, from cuca, caterpillar.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly cockroche, an accommodation of Spanish cucaracha, a wood-louse, a cockroach, = Portuguese *cacaroucha, caroucha, a beetle.
 

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/ˈkɑkroʊtʃ/
by American Heritage

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