locust

Meaning

Noun

1. Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, (especially) migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria).
2. A fruit or pod of a carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua).
3. Any of various often leguminous trees and shrubs, especially of the genera Robinia and Gleditsia; locust tree.
4. A cicada.
5. A Mainlander.

Verb

To come in a swarm.

Concepts

locust

grasshopper

cricket

cicada

locust tree

Robinia

black locust

a species of grasshoppers

patanga

short-horned grasshopper

false acacias

grass-hopper

fly

locustidae

grig

acacia

ant

bristly locust

moss locust

rose acacia

yellow locust

dragonfly

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈləʊ.kəst/

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 tree sense, originally referring to the carob (compare locust bean), is based on the resemblance of the trees' beanlike seed pods to the insect and is likely a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ἀκρίς (akrís).
The sense in "Mainlander" is a semantic loan from Cantonese 蝗蟲／蝗虫 (wong4 cung4), also meaning "locust".