katydid

English
a great green bush-cricket (Tettigonia viridissima), a species of katydid

Etymology

Onomatopoeic, from the sound a common true katydid (Pterophylla camellifolia) makes by stridulating.[1]

katydid song(file)

Pronunciation
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈkeɪtiˌdɪd/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Noun

katydid (plural katydids)

  1. A relative of grasshoppers and crickets, in the family Tettigoniidae.
    Synonym: (UK) bush-cricket
    • 1889, Charles Conrad Abbott, Days Out of Doors, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 194:
      I have noticed all these, and some at a much earlier date than the first faint lisping of a timid katydid; and all such sights and sounds are similarly suggestive—the summer is drawing to its close.
    • 2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 52:
      In the night the katydids and crickets screeched in waves, soft then loud, back and forth.

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “katydid”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading
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