# locusta
## English
### Noun

locusta (plural locustae)
* (botany) The spikelet or flower cluster of grasses

### References

* ↑ Asa Gray (1857) “[Glossary […].] Locusta.”, in First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology, […], New York, N.Y.: Ivison & Phinney and G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam & Co., […], →OCLC.
* “locusta”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* Tuscola, costula, couatls, talcous

## Italian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin locusta, of uncertain origin. Doublet of the inherited aragosta.

### Noun

locusta f (plural locuste)
* locust

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* lucusta, *lacusta

### Etymology

The origin is uncertain, length of the first vowel varies. According to De Vaan, the only word similar in form and meaning is lacerta (“lizard; mackerel”) and “they could be cognate words in the language from which Latin borrowed these forms”. Pokorny connects lō̆custa and lacerta with Ancient Greek λάξ (láx) λάγδην (lágdēn, “with the foot”, adverb), λάκτις (láktis, “pestle”), λικερτίζειν (likertízein, “to jump, to dance”) and Old Norse leggr (“lower leg, bone”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh”), deriving all from Proto-Indo-European *lek- (“joint, member; to bend, to wind”), explaining lō̆custa as “equipped with joints”. This is considered unconvincing by De Vaan.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /loːˈkus.ta/, [ɫ̪oːˈkʊs̠t̪ä] or IPA: /loˈkus.ta/, [ɫ̪ɔˈkʊs̠t̪ä]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /loˈkus.ta/, [loˈkust̪ä]
* Note: in Late Latin hexameter poetry, the vowel normally scans short, in contrast to the personal name where it scans long.

### Noun

lō̆custa f (genitive lō̆custae); first declension
* a grasshopper or locust
** 2015, Tuomo Pekkanen, Ingentes greges locustarum in Russia meridionali. , Nuntii Latini 7.8.2015:
    Ingentēs gregēs lō̆custārum regiōnem Stavropolis in Russiā merīdiōnālī invāsērunt.A giant swarm of locusts has invaded the Stavropolsky district in southern Russia.
* a crustacean, (prob) a kind of lobster
    lō̆custa marīna/maris ― a crustacean (literally, “a sea grasshopper”)

#### Declension

First-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | lō̆custa | lō̆custae |
| Genitive | lō̆custae | lō̆custārum |
| Dative | lō̆custae | lō̆custīs |
| Accusative | lō̆custam | lō̆custās |
| Ablative | lō̆custā | lō̆custīs |
| Vocative | lō̆custa | lō̆custae |

#### Derived terms

* prius pariet lō̆custa Lūcam bovem
* Lō̆custa, Lū̆custa

#### Descendants

* Late Latin: lacusta (see there for further descendants)

##### Borrowings

* → Italian: locusta
* → Old French: locuste
** French: locuste
** → Middle English: locuste, locust, locusta
*** English: locust
* → Portuguese: locusta
* → Romanian: locustă
* →? Old English: loppestre, lopustre, lopystre
** Middle English: loppestere
*** English: lobster
*** Scots: lapster, labster
*** Yola: labstaar

### References

* “locusta” on page 1145 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
* Pokorny, Julius (1959) “673”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 673
* Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “locusta”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎ (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 365ab
* De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “locusta”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 347-348

### Further reading

* “locusta”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “locusta”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* locusta in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* locusta in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* “locusta”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “locusta”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

## Middle English
### Noun

locusta
* Alternative form of locuste