Re: USAGE: names for pillbug/wood louse/woodbug

On 13 March, Philippe Caquant wrote:

> Suppose somebody would look in a good English or
> American dictionnary, and tell us what a bug should be
> ?
>
    I just got out my Webster's Third New International Dictionary
(which took some doing --- it weighs, at a conservative guess,
half a million tons ;-)   ). It says, among other things:
"an insect or other creeping or crawling invertebrate
(as a spider or small crustacean) --- not used technically".
It also goes on to say: "any of certain insects commonly
considered esp. obnoxious as (1): BEDBUG
(2): COCKROACH (3): HEAD LOUSE" [Capitals, theirs not mine]
    After this, it says: "an insect of the order Hemiptera:
esp. : a member of the suborder Heteroptera".

    Re: whether or not Americans consider spiders
as bugs, consider:  in the March 15 issue of Time magazine,
there is a short article entitled: "Tastes Like
Chicken. Really", which begins:

    "Bugs. Some people study them, a few keep them as pets..."

and continues about a place where you can go in Cambodia
in order to "munch on a deep-fried spider."
(The article also suggests washing them down with
"spider-infused rice wine"! )

    Personally, (speaking as an American English L1 speaker)
I think I _would_ include spiders as bugs.
I draw the line at scorpions though --- to me they're not "bugs".
I'm not sure as to flies and mosquitoes.


Dan Sulani
-----------------------------------------------------------
likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.

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