Aphid

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈeɪ.fɪd/

Definitions

1. A minute insect known for feeding on plant sap, typically living in groups on vegetation while also being a vector for numerous plant diseases
2. A diminutive pest that extracts juices from plants, frequently residing in colonies and implicated in the transmission of various plant pathogens
3. A tiny insect that feeds by sucking sap from plants and can gather in groups on leaves or stems

Etymology: Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who gave plants and animals their modern scientific names, coined the Latin "aphis" in 1758, and English took the plural "aphides" and singular "aphid" from it. Nobody is quite sure where he got the name. One possibility is a misreading: the Ancient Greek word "koris", meaning "bug", may have been mistaken for "aphis" in a text Linnaeus was reading, with its ending reinterpreted along the way. The other proposal links it to the Greek "apheidés", meaning "unsparing" or "lavish", a fitting name for insects that feed heavily and multiply at astonishing speed. Because "aphis" and "aphid" both come from the same Latin source, they are doublets: two English words descended from one original, one taken in directly as a scientific term and the other shaped into the familiar English form.

Synonyms: plant louse, greenfly, blackfly, sucking insect, pest