Cimicidae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family of insects commonly known as bedbugs, which are characterized by their flat, oval bodies and blood-feeding habits
2. A group of parasitic insects within the order Hemiptera, known for their ability to notably infest human habitats and feed on blood
3. An entomological family that includes various species of small, wingless, hematophagous insects that are often found in domestic environments

Etymology: Cimicidae is the scientific name for the family of bedbugs, and it is a modern coinage built from Latin. The root is "cimex," the Latin word for bug, which in classical Latin referred to bugs of several kinds, including those that plagued sleepers. The Latin "-idae" ending is the standard zoological suffix for animal families, so the name amounts to "the family of the cimex." Taxonomists in the 18th and 19th centuries, working in the Linnaean tradition of Latinized naming, applied this pattern to bedbugs as they catalogued the insects of the world. Latin "cimex" is itself a word whose history is shared with English "bug" only loosely, since "bug" has a separate and much later origin. Readers meeting "cimex" in older texts should therefore not assume it is related to the English word. The family name preserves the classical term while giving the insects a formal, internationally recognized label that scientists in any language can use.