Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Achrysomelid beetle, the notorious Doryphora decemlineata, which up to 1855 or 1856 lived in the Rocky Mountain region, feeding upon the wild Solanum rostratum, but which, as the cultivated potato reached its habitat, increased enormously and began to spread to the east. In 1874 it reached the Atlantic coast at several points, and it has since been a pest in almost the entire country. It has several times made its way to Europe, but has been stamped out. Both larva and beetle feed upon the leaves of the potato, and the pupa is formed in the earth at the foot of the plant. There are three generations annually, and the perfect beetles hibernate. The most common and effective remedy is Paris green. See cut under
beetle . - n. A meloid beetle, Epicauta vittata. Also called the old-fashioned potato-beetle.
Examples
“If the potato-beetle is troubling the potatoes, add paris-green to the Bordeaux mixture -- a teaspoonful to every two gallons.”
“The potato-beetle, giant water-bug, eastern swallow-tail butterfly, and promothea moth are insects suitable as types to be studied by the pupils of Form I.”
“Bridget was not waiting for him behind the door with the potato-beetle as she did on days of great irritation.”
“This was written before the potato-beetle made its appearance.”
“Mash them when quite hot, using a potato-beetle for the purpose; add to them a piece of fresh butter, and a little salt, and, if convenient, some milk, which will greatly improve them.”
“Break up and mash them with a potato-beetle, or a rolling-pin.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘potato-beetle’.
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Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for potato-beetle.
chained_bear Exactly. It says so right on the label. May 11, 2010
yarb It's part potato, part beetle, and 100% neither! May 4, 2010
chained_bear Damn Anglo-Saxons. May 4, 2010
hernesheir "The Anglo-Saxon word byotal, more usually written bytl is represented in our modern English as beetle, a wooden hammer used for beating clothes."
-Anglo-Saxon and Old English vocabularies, Volume 1, by Thomas Wright May 4, 2010
chained_bear ... wouldn't that be better spelled beatle?
AH-HUH! AH-HUH-HUH!! < -- upper-class twit laugh.
Damn Victorians. May 4, 2010
hernesheir Potato masher. Beetle in the verb sense "to pound", "smash", "beat", etc. May 4, 2010
chained_bear But that's just it! This usage doesn't describe a bug at all, but some kind of kitchen tool. Doesn't anyone else think that's f***ing WEIRD?
*muttering* Damn Victorians... May 4, 2010
hernesheir "Man is bigger than the potato bug and he will master it."
--Horace Greeley May 3, 2010
chained_bear "If the peas are cold, heat the butter and pound the peas smooth with a potato-beetle."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 254 May 3, 2010