crabro

Possibly from Proto-Italic *krāzrō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂-. Cognate with Old High German hornaz, hornuz, horniz (“hornet”), Old English hurnitu, hyrnetu (“hornet”). More at hornet. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkraː.broː/, [ˈkräːbroː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkra.bro/, [ˈkräːbro]

crābrō m (genitive crābrōnis); third declension

1. hornet
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 3.753–754:

     mīlia crābrōnum coeunt et vertice nūdō
     spīculā dēfīgunt ōraque sīma notant.

     Thousands of hornets unite and thrust their stings into the top of his bald head and mark his snub-nosed face.
     (When Silenus goes looking for honey he is attacked by hornets.)

Third-declension noun.

Most descendants via crābrōnem (accusative).

• → Esperanto: krabro
• Italian: calabrone
• Lombard: gravalòn
• Venetian: graón, gravarón, graùgn
• West Iberian
  • Portuguese: cambrão
  • Spanish: cambrón
• → Portuguese: crabro
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *crabrus
  • Old Spanish: caparra
    • Spanish: garrapata

• “crabro”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “crabro”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• crabro in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.