deathwatch beetle

• death-watch beetle

Compound of death +‎ watch +‎ beetle. The sound the beetles make is said to resemble a ticking watch, and is sometimes believed to herald death. Attested (as death watch) from the late 17th century.

deathwatch beetle (plural deathwatch beetles)

1. Any of various beetles of the family Anobiidae, now usually included in family Ptinidae, especially Xestobium rufovillosum, that bore into wood and make a tapping sound.
   • 1819, John Mason Good, Olinthus Gregory, Newton Bosworth, Pantologia. A New Cabinet Cyclopedia‎, page 38:

     And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch:
     Because like a watch it always cries click;
     Then woe to those in the house who are sick,

   • 1895, J. Hautenville Cope, “The death watch beetle”, in The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Archæological Journal, page 85:

     A very deadly enemy to woodwork in churches and other buildings is the creature known as the Death Watch beetle (anobium tessellatum, or rufovillosum).

• “death watch, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2014.