caterpillar

Từ điển Oxford Advanced Learner 8th

cat·er·pil·lar [caterpillar caterpillars] BrE [ˈkætəpɪlə(r)] NAmE [ˈkætərpɪlər] noun
a small creature like a ↑worm with legs, that develops into a ↑butterfly or ↑moth (= flying insects with large, sometimes brightly coloured, wings). Caterpillars eat the leaves of plants.

Word Origin:
late Middle English: perhaps from a variant of Old French chatepelose, literally ‘hairy cat’, influenced by obsolete piller ‘ravager’. The association with “cat” is found in other languages, e.g. Swiss German Teufelskatz (literally ‘devil's cat’), Lombard (an Italian dialect spoken in northern Italy) gatta (literally ‘cat’). Compare with French chaton, English ↑catkin, which resembles a hairy caterpillar.

• Từ đồng nghĩa / Synonyms:
  Caterpillar, cat