| 释义 |
▪ I. caterpillar, n.|ˈkætəpɪlə(r)|
Forms: 5 catyrpel, 6 -pyllar, catirpiller, 7 catterpiller, 7–8 -pillar, 6– caterpiller, -pillar.
[Catyrpel, in Promp. Parv., may be merely an error of the scribe for catyrpelour (or -er); Palsgr. has the full form. Generally compared with the synonymous OF. chatepelose, lit. ‘hairy or downy cat’ (cf. the Sc. name hairy woubit ‘woolly bear’), of which the ONF. would be catepelose. This is a possible source, though no connexion is historically established: the final sibilant might be treated in Eng. as a pl. formative, and the supposed sing. catepelo would be readily associated with the well-known word piller, pilour, pillager, plunderer, spoiler. This is illustrated by the fact that in the fig. sense, piller and caterpiller are used synonymously in a large number of parallel passages (see sense 2). The regular earlier spelling was with -er; the corruption caterpillar (? after pillar), occasional in 17th c., was adopted by Johnson, and has since prevailed.
(Some think the word a direct compound of piller. The giving to hairy caterpillars a name derived from the cat, is seen not only in the French word cited, but also in Lombard. gatta, gattola (cat, kitten), Swiss teufelskatz (devil's cat); cf. also F. chenille (:—canicula little dog), Milan. can, cagnon (dog, pup) a silk-worm (Wedgwood). Cf. also catkin, F. chaton, applied to things resembling hairy caterpillars.)]
1. a. The larva of a butterfly or moth; sometimes extended to those of other insects, especially those of saw-flies, which are also hairy.
c1440Promp. Parv. 63 Catyrpel, wyrm among frute, erugo. 1530Palsgr. 203/2 Catyrpyllar worme, chatte pellevse. 1535Coverdale Ps. lxxvii[i]. 46 He gaue their frutes vnto the catirpiller. 1597Shakes. Rich. II, iii. iv. 47 Her wholesome Hearbes Swarming with Caterpillers. 1611Bible Joel ii. 25 The canker worme, and the caterpiller, and the palmer worme. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Catter-pillers, which turne into butter-flies. 1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 193 Cut off the Webs of Caterpillars. 1859Tennyson Guinevere 33 The gardener's hand Picks from the colewort a green caterpillar. 1880Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 3) 434 We know that the caterpiller and the butterfly are the same individual.
b. In full caterpillar tractor [Caterpillar, proprietary term]: a type of tractor which travels upon two endless steel bands, one on each side of the machine, to facilitate travel over very rough ground. Also caterpillar lorry, caterpillar tank, caterpillar wheel, etc.; caterpillar-wheeled adj.
1908Sci. Amer. 16 May 348/1 The ‘Caterpillar’ Tractor. For some months past the British military authorities have been experimenting with a new type of tractor for the haulage of heavy vehicles over rough and unstable ground... The soldiers at the Aldershot military center, where it is in operation, promptly christened it the ‘caterpillar’. 1911Official Gaz. U.S. Pat. Off. 28 Nov. 1079/2 The Holt Manufacturing Company, Stockton, Cal. Caterpillar. Gasolene, Steam, and Traction Engines, Harvesters, and Road-Working Machines. 1914Illustr. London News. 5 Sept. 369 A 21-centimetre siege-mortar—with ‘caterpillar’ wheels. 1915W. S. Churchill Let. 5 Jan. in World Crisis (1923) II. 74 The caterpillar system would enable trenches to be crossed quite easily. ― Memo. 3 Dec. Ibid. 87 The Caterpillars will be so close to the enemy's line that they will be immune from his artillery. 1915Lit. Digest 4 Sept. 467/1 Government road-building throughout the interior has paved the way for automobiles, caterpillars and traction-engines. 1915Trade Marks Jrnl. 8 Dec. 1224 Class 6. Caterpillar. Tractors and Traction Engines, being Machinery included in Class 6. Caterpillar Tractors, Limited,..Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C. 1922Westm. Gaz. 28 Dec., From In-Salah the caterpillar-wheeled cars will cross the plateau of Tidikelt. 1923Contemp. Rev. Oct. 487 The arrangement of ‘caterpillar’ traction, with which they were fitted. 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 50 Caterpillar, a familiar name for the tractor fitted with ‘girdles’, or flat slabs of metal, round their wheels, employed to haul heavy guns and large vehicles on soft ground. 1935H. G. Wells Things to Come v. 33 Long lines of tanks and caterpillar lorries. 1935Times 21 Dec. 9/3 The main body of the Italian troops, with light caterpillar tanks, advanced southwards. 1940War Illustr. 16 Feb. 108 Caterpillar tractors built in the U.S.A. are awaiting shipment to France. 1958Listener 19 June 1004/1 We were shown a huge iron machine on caterpillar tracks.
c. Also applied to the undercarriage of an aeroplane equipped with a similar device.
1931Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXV. 492 (heading) Safety in flying and caterpillar undercarriages. Ibid., The caterpillar landing wheel has an equivalent wheel diameter..with small resistance in flight. 1943in Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. (1944) XLVIII. (Abstr.) 73 (title) Caterpillar track landing gear.
2. fig. A rapacious person; an extortioner; one who preys upon society. In early times distinctly transferred, and used synonymously with the earlier piller, but afterwards only fig. with conscious reference to the literal sense.
[1475Bk. Noblesse (1860) 31 Pilleris, robberis, extorcioneris. 1539Bible (Great) 1 Cor. vi. 10 Nether theues, nether couetouse..nether pyllers. 1545Joye On Daniel xi, Extortioner and pieller of the people. a1570Becon Jewel of Joye Wks. 1564 II. 16 b, Pollers and pyllers of the contrey.] 1541Barnes Wks. (1573) AAa iij, The Augustine friers in London..those Caterpillers and blouddy beastes. 1552Latimer Serm. Lord's Prayer v. 40 The children of this worlde, as couetous persons, extorcioners, oppressours, catirpillers, userers. 1579Gosson (title), The Schoole of Abuse, Conteining a plesaunt inuectiue against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Iesters, and such like Caterpillers of a Commonwelth. 1631Weever Anc. Fun. Mon 417 Empson and Dudley (cater-pillers of the common-wealth, hatefull to all good people). 1631High Commission Cases (1886) 259 For his saying against the officers that they are caterpillers I let that passe. 1696Phillips s.v., When we see a company of Lacqueys at the tail of a coach, we say, There goes a Bunch of Caterpillers. 1726Amherst Terræ Fil. xl. 211 Such nurseries of drones and caterpillars, to prey upon it. 1826Scott Lett. Mal. Malagr. ii. 66 We have become the caterpillars of the island, instead of its pillars.
3. black caterpillar:
a. The larva of the Turnip Saw-fly.
b. A fly or an imitation of it used as a bait in angling.
1787Best Angling (ed. 2) 113 The black Caterpillar comes on about the beginning of May..if winds and clouds appear, they then grow weak for want of the sun, and fall upon the waters in great quantities. The wings are made from a feather out of a jay's wing, the body of an ostrich's feather. 1799G. Smith Laborat. II. 303 Black-caterpillar-fly. 1848Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. No. 6. 329 The larva of Athalia centifolæ..named the nigger or black caterpillar, is an enemy..much dreaded by the agriculturist..In 1780 it was abundant in Northumberland.
4. Herb.
a. A name given to the leguminous plants of the genus Scorpiurus from the shape of their pods.
b. By Gerard Myosotis palustris, the true Forget-me-not or Scorpion-grass, ‘is included in the same chapter and under the same name’ (Britten and Holland Plant-n.).
1597Gerard Herbal i. §10. 267 Our English gentle-women and others do call it Caterpillers, of the similitude it hath with the shape of that canker worme called a caterpiller. 1672W. Hughes Flower Gard. (1683) 8 Snails and Caterpillers..raised from Seed sowed in April..cannot properly be called Flowers, but they have very pretty heads. 1713Petiver Rare Plants in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 212 Prickley Catterpillars. 1750G. Hughes Barbados 170. 1866 Treas. Bot., Caterpillar, a name for Scorpiurus.
5. attrib. and Comb.:
a. simple attrib. Of, pertaining to, or resembling a caterpillar.
b. caterpillar-catcher, a sub-family of shrikes which feed on caterpillars; caterpillar-eater, (a) the larva of an ichneumon fly; (b) = caterpillar catcher; caterpillar-fly = 3 above; caterpillar-plant = 4 above; caterpillar-like a.
a.1859Darwin Orig. Spec. iv. (1878) 67 The caterpillar and cocoon stages. 1864Lowell Fireside Trav. 95 The caterpillar wooden bridges crawling with innumerable legs across the flats of Charles.
b.
1880A. R. Wallace Isl. Life 407 *Caterpillar-catchers..abundant in the old-world tropics.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., One of the species of these *caterpillar eaters.
1611Cotgr., Chenillé, *Caterpiller-like. 1862Ansted Channel Isl. ii. ix. (ed. 2) 237 A fleshy, caterpillar-like body.
1841Penny Cycl. XXI. 415/1 The Ceblepyrinæ, or *Caterpillar Shrikes.
1847Emerson Woodnotes i. Wks. (Bohn) I. 220 Pondering clouds, Grass-buds, and *caterpillar-shrouds.
6. A member of the Caterpillar Club founded by Leslie Leroy Irvin in 1922 (see quots. 1930).
1925Literary Digest 26 Sept. 50 (title) Are you eligible for the Caterpillar club? 1930C. Dixon Parachuting vii. 61 Each caterpillar has saved his life with a parachute. 1930Engineering 26 Dec. 811/3 The Caterpillar Club (this being the name given to persons who have saved their lives by the agency of a parachute).
Hence ˈcaterpillared a., (a) fitted with a caterpillar; (b) fitted with caterpillar tracks.
1608Topsell Serpents 671 The trout..deceived with a caterpillered hook. 1917Blackw. Mag. Mar. 379/2 New armoured cars, caterpillared and powerfully armed, would make their bow to Brother Boche.
▪ II. ˈcaterpillar, v.
[f. the n.]
To move like a caterpillar or on caterpillar tracks (see prec. 1 b).
1916Daily Sketch 23 Nov. 3/1 Three tanks started... One of the machines moved..caterpillaring its laborious way up the slope. 1928Daily Express 2 July 3 These ‘tank’ drivers have developed enormous calf muscles, due to caterpillaring over rough country. |