n.
- Any of several edible marine crustaceans of the family Homaridae, especially of the genus Homarus, having stalked eyes, long antennae, and five pairs of legs, the first pair of which is modified into large pincers.
- Any of several crustaceans, such as the spiny lobster, that are related to the lobsters.
- The flesh of a lobster used as food.
To search for and catch lobsters.
[Middle English lopster, lobstere, from Old English loppestre, alteration (perhaps influenced by loppe, lobbe, spider) of Latin locusta.]
lobsterer lob'ster·er n.WORD HISTORY A lobster and a locust may share a common source for their name, that is, the Latin word locusta, which was used for the locust and also for a crustacean that was probably a kind of lobster. We can see that locusta would be the source of locust, but it looks like an unlikely candidate as the source of lobster. It is thought, however, that Old English loppestre, the ancestor of lobster, was formed from locusta and the suffix -estre used to make agent nouns (our -ster). The change from Latin locusta to Old English loppestre may have been influenced by Old English loppe, meaning "spider."
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
