- 1毛毛蟲
A caterpillar is a small creature with a long soft body and many short legs. It eats leaves, and later it changes into a butterfly or a moth. Children often call it a kind of worm, and it does look like one, but it is not a worm: it is the young form of those flying insects. Some caterpillars are hairy, some are smooth, some are coloured. Though actually, the English name probably comes from an old French name meaning “hairy cat,” which is a funny picture, not a science name. There is also a big machine company called Caterpillar, because a tracked vehicle crawls a bit like this creature. Same spelling; this entry is the animal.
組成大概來自古北方法文 catepeluse，意思是「毛茸茸的貓」（法文 chatte「貓」+ pileuse「多毛的」），再往上是晚期拉丁文 catta + pilōsa（多毛的）。英文本來有土詞 kaleworm / cawelwyrm 指這種生物，後來被 caterpillar 取代。另有一個已少用的意思「搜刮人的人」，是跟舊詞 piller（掠奪的人）混在一起才生出來的，不是小蟲這個意思。
同家族的字
- catthe old French first piece is “cat”; the name is a picture of a hairy cat, not of a pillar
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
caterpillarnoun/ˈkætəˌpɪlə/
- 1
The larva of a butterfly or moth; leafworm.
- The bird just ate that green caterpillar.
- A caterpillar is letting itself down on a thread, twirling slowly like a rope artist, spiralling towards his chest. It’s a luscious, unreal green, like a gumdrop, and covered with tiny bright hairs.
- 2
A vehicle with a caterpillar track; a crawler.
- 3
mathematicssciencesA set of subtrees of a tree.
- 4
obsoleteA rapacious, extortionate person preying upon the community.
- Bristow Castle, which they say is held By Busbie, Bagot, and their Complices, The Caterpillers of the Commonwealth, Which I haue sworne to weed, and plucke away.
caterpillarverb/ˈkætəˌpɪlə/
- 1
To move along slowly, drawing one's body up, in the manner of a caterpillar.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。