▪ 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.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 63 Catyrpel, wyrm among frute, erugo. 1530 Palsgr. 203/2 Catyrpyllar worme, chatte pellevse. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lxxvii[i]. 46 He gaue their frutes vnto the catirpiller. 1597 Shakes. Rich. II, iii. iv. 47 Her wholesome Hearbes Swarming with Caterpillers. 1611 Bible Joel ii. 25 The canker worme, and the caterpiller, and the palmer worme. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Catter-pillers, which turne into butter-flies. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 193 Cut off the Webs of Caterpillars. 1859 Tennyson Guinevere 33 The gardener's hand Picks from the colewort a green caterpillar. 1880 Earle 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.| 1908 Sci. 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’. 1911 Official 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. 1914 Illustr. London News. 5 Sept. 369 A 21-centimetre siege-mortar—with ‘caterpillar’ wheels. 1915 W. 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. 1915 Lit. Digest 4 Sept. 467/1 Government road-building throughout the interior has paved the way for automobiles, caterpillars and traction-engines. 1915 Trade 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. 1922 Westm. Gaz. 28 Dec., From In-Salah the caterpillar-wheeled cars will cross the plateau of Tidikelt. 1923 Contemp. Rev. Oct. 487 The arrangement of ‘caterpillar’ traction, with which they were fitted. 1925 Fraser & 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. 1935 H. G. Wells Things to Come v. 33 Long lines of tanks and caterpillar lorries. 1935 Times 21 Dec. 9/3 The main body of the Italian troops, with light caterpillar tanks, advanced southwards. 1940 War Illustr. 16 Feb. 108 Caterpillar tractors built in the U.S.A. are awaiting shipment to France. 1958 Listener 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.
| 1931 Jrnl. 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. 1943 in 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.
| [1475 Bk. Noblesse (1860) 31 Pilleris, robberis, extorcioneris. 1539 Bible (Great) 1 Cor. vi. 10 Nether theues, nether couetouse..nether pyllers. 1545 Joye On Daniel xi, Extortioner and pieller of the people. a 1570 Becon Jewel of Joye Wks. 1564 II. 16 b, Pollers and pyllers of the contrey.] 1541 Barnes Wks. (1573) AAa iij, The Augustine friers in London..those Caterpillers and blouddy beastes. 1552 Latimer Serm. Lord's Prayer v. 40 The children of this worlde, as couetous persons, extorcioners, oppressours, catirpillers, userers. 1579 Gosson (title), The Schoole of Abuse, Conteining a plesaunt inuectiue against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Iesters, and such like Caterpillers of a Commonwelth. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon 417 Empson and Dudley (cater-pillers of the common-wealth, hatefull to all good people). 1631 High Commission Cases (1886) 259 For his saying against the officers that they are caterpillers I let that passe. 1696 Phillips s.v., When we see a company of Lacqueys at the tail of a coach, we say, There goes a Bunch of Caterpillers. 1726 Amherst Terræ Fil. xl. 211 Such nurseries of drones and caterpillars, to prey upon it. 1826 Scott 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.
| 1787 Best 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. 1799 G. Smith Laborat. II. 303 Black-caterpillar-fly. 1848 Proc. 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.).
| 1597 Gerard 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. 1672 W. 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. 1713 Petiver Rare Plants in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 212 Prickley Catterpillars. 1750 G. 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. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. iv. (1878) 67 The caterpillar and cocoon stages. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 95 The caterpillar wooden bridges crawling with innumerable legs across the flats of Charles. |
| 1880 A. R. Wallace Isl. Life 407 *Caterpillar-catchers..abundant in the old-world tropics. |
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., One of the species of these *caterpillar eaters. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Chenillé, *Caterpiller-like. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. ii. ix. (ed. 2) 237 A fleshy, caterpillar-like body. |
| 1841 Penny Cycl. XXI. 415/1 The Ceblepyrinæ, or *Caterpillar Shrikes. |
| 1847 Emerson 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).
| 1925 Literary Digest 26 Sept. 50 (title) Are you eligible for the Caterpillar club? 1930 C. Dixon Parachuting vii. 61 Each caterpillar has saved his life with a parachute. 1930 Engineering 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.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 671 The trout..deceived with a caterpillered hook. 1917 Blackw. 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).
| 1916 Daily Sketch 23 Nov. 3/1 Three tanks started... One of the machines moved..caterpillaring its laborious way up the slope. 1928 Daily Express 2 July 3 These ‘tank’ drivers have developed enormous calf muscles, due to caterpillaring over rough country. |