- weevil
[weevil 词源字典] - weevil: [15] Old English had a word wifel ‘beetle’, but this appears to have died out, and weevil was probably borrowed from Middle Low German wevel. Both words had the same ultimate origin, however: prehistoric Germanic *webilaz. It is not clear whether this was derived from the base *web-, *wab- ‘weave’ (source of English weave ‘make cloth’ and web), in which case the weevil would be the ‘weaving’ creature; or from the base *web- ‘move quickly’ (source of English weave ‘move in a zigzag way’, whip, etc), in which case it would be the ‘quick mover’.
[weevil etymology, weevil origin, 英语词源] - weevil (n.)
- Old English wifel "small beetle," from Proto-Germanic *webilaz (cognates: Old Saxon wibil, Old High German wibil, German Wiebel "beetle, chafer," Old Norse tordyfill "dung beetle"), cognate with Lithuanian vabalas "beetle," from PIE root *webh- "to weave," also "to move quickly" (see weave (v.)). The sense gradually narrowed by 15c. to a particular kind of beetle that, in larval or adult stages, bores into plants, often destroying them.
