different between cockroach vs crayfish

English

Etymology

From Spanish cucaracha (“woodlouse”), from cuca (“butterfly caterpillars”), of onomatopoeic origin; see also Greek ?????? (kókkux) and Late Latin cucus. Influenced, via folk etymology, by cock and roach. Doublet of cucaracha.

Pronunciation

Noun

cockroach (plural cockroaches)

1. A black or brown straight-winged insect of the order Blattodea.

   Synonym: (US) roach

2. (slang, offensive) A person or a member of a group of people regarded as undesirable and rapidly procreating.
3. (offensive, slang, ethnic slur, Rwanda) A Tutsi.
4. (Australia, slang, derogatory, humorous) A person from New South Wales.
5. (Australia, slang, obsolete) A hard lump of brown sugar.

Derived terms

• roach

Translations

Further reading

• cockroach on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Alternative forms

• crawfish; craifish (obsolete), crafish, crefish (obsolete); crevis, crevice, crevyssh (obsolete)

Etymology

Alteration (by folk etymology, influenced by fish) of Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice ("crayfish"; > Modern French: écrevisse), from Frankish *krebitja (“crayfish”), diminutive of Frankish *krebit (“crab”), from Proto-Germanic *krabitaz (“crab, cancer”), from Proto-Indo-European *greb?-, *gereb?- (“to scratch, crawl”). Akin to Old High German krebiz ("edible crustacean, crab"; > Modern German Krebs (“crab”)), Middle Low German kr?vet (“crab”), Dutch kreeft (“crayfish, lobster”), Old English crabba (“crab”). More at crab.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?e??f??/

Noun

crayfish (plural crayfishes or crayfish)

1. Any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea, resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller.
   1. (New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota) A freshwater crustacean (family Cambaridae), sometimes used as an inexpensive seafood or as fish bait.
2. (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) A rock lobster (family Palinuridae).
3. (Singapore) The species Thenus orientalis of the slipper lobster family.

Usage notes

The term crayfish predominates in the region of New England and in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In much of the United States—in the South, especially in Louisiana and Texas; in the Midwest and in the West—crawfish predominates. In a belt stretching across Kentucky through Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and in Oregon and northern California, the term crawdad predominates.

Synonyms

• (freshwater crustaceans): crawdad, crawldad, crawfish, crawlfish, mudbug, yabby (Australia)

Derived terms

• crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci)

Translations

Verb

crayfish (third-person singular simple present crayfishes, present participle crayfishing, simple past and past participle crayfished)

1. to catch crayfish
2. Alternative form of crawfish (to backpedal, desert, or withdraw)

Translations

See also

• lobster
• prawn
• shrimp
• yabby

References

Further reading

• crayfish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• crayfish at OneLook Dictionary Search