cockchafer
/ˈkɒkˌt͡ʃeɪfɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.12 in modern English
26
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
1
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of the large European beetles from the genus Melolontha that are destructive to vegetation.
Example Sentences
- "To the person who shall discover to the Society an effectual method, verified by repeated and satisfactory trials, of destroying the Grub of the Cockchafer, so destructive to the roots of all sorts of Corn, Pease, Beans, and Turneps, the gold medal."
- "His impassioned words buzzed about my ears like cockchafers round the top of the lime-trees."
- "With regard to the playing of the female part by the weaker rats it is interesting to observe that Féré found among insects that the passive part in homosexual relations is favored by fatigue; among cockchafers it was the male just separated from the female who would take the passive part (on the rare occasions when homosexual relations occurred) with a fresh male."
Etymology
From cock (“male bird”) + chafer (“beetle”). The Oxford English Dictionary speculates that the name may relate to a resemblance of antennae to coxcomb, or to the beetle’s size. Compare French hanneton (“cockchafer”), ultimately from Frankish *hanō (“rooster”). First attested in the late 17th century.