different between locust vs grasshoper

English

Etymology

From Middle English locuste, locust, from Anglo-Norman locuste, Middle French locuste, and their source, Latin locusta (“locust, crustacean, lobster”). Doublet of langouste. The sense in "Mainlander" directly borrows Chinese ?? (wong4 cung4), also meaning "locust".

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l??.k?st/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?lo?.k?st/

Noun

locust (plural locusts)

1. Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, (especially) the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria). [from 14th c.]
2. (now historical) A fruit or pod of the carob tree. [from 16th c.]
   • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, vol. I, ch. 9:

     Among other articles, they brought with them a great quantity of locusts, which are a kind of pulse, sweet and pleasant to the palate, and in shape resembling French beans, but longer.

3. Any of various often leguminous trees and shrubs, especially of the genera Robinia and Gleditsia; the locust tree. [from 17th c.]
4. A cicada. [from 18th c.]
5. (Hong Kong, derogatory, offensive) A Mainlander.

Usage notes

• sometimes confused with locus

Hyponyms

1. American locust (Schistocerca americana)
2. Australian plague locust (Chortoicetes terminifera)
3. Bombay locust (Nomadacris succincta)
4. brown locust (Locustana pardalina)
5. desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria)
6. Italian locust (Calliptamus italicus)
7. migratory locust (Locusta migratoria)
8. Moroccan locust (Dociostaurus maroccanus)
9. red locust (Nomadacris septemfasciata)
10. Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus) (extinct)
11. spur-throated locust (Austracris guttulosa), of Australia
12. Tree locusts (Anacridium spp.)
    1. Anacridium aegyptium (Egyptian locust).
    2. Anacridium melanorhodon, of Africa.
    3. Anacridium wernerellum, of Africa.

Translations

Verb

locust (third-person singular simple present locusts, present participle locusting, simple past and past participle locusted)

1. (intransitive) To come in a swarm.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Queen Mary

     This Philip and the black-faced swarms of Spain,
     The hardest, cruellest people in the world,
     Come locusting upon us, eat us up,
     Confiscate lands, goods, money […]

References

Anagrams

• clouts

Middle English

Noun

locust

1. Alternative form of locuste