▪ I. hornet1
(ˈhɔːnɪt)
Forms: α. 1 hyrnetu, hyrnet, 5 hernet. β. 4 harnette, 6 harnet. γ. 6– hornet, (6 -ette, 7 -ett).
[OE. hyrnetu, hyrnet, earlier hurnitu, hirnitu, fem. corresp. to MDu. hōrnete, hornte, MLG. hornte, LG. hörnt, hornke, EFris. hörnetje, hörntje, OHG. hornuz, -oz, -az, masc., MHG. hornuz, -iz, etc., Ger. hornisse (with many variants: see Grimm).
These words have the appearance of being derivatives of horn, a presumption strengthened by the OS. hornobero, and early mod.Du. horener (Kilian), which mean both ‘horner or horn-blower’ and ‘hornet’, also by Kilian's hornsel as a var. of horsel(e, mod.Du. horzel. Many scholars however incline to the opinion that the latter contains the original root, and that hornut- represents an original horz-nut-, formed, like MD. horsele, from a radical *hors- = pre-Teut. *kṛs-, found in OSlav. srŭša, Lith. szirszů wasp, and perh. in L. crābrōn- for *crāsrōn-. If this were so, the association with horn would be later and due to popular etymology. See Kluge s.v. Hornisse, Franck s.v. Horzel.]
1. a. An insect of the wasp family, esp. the European Vespa Crabro and the American V. maculata, much larger and stronger than other wasps, and inflicting a more serious sting.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. 603 Crabro, waefs vel hurnitu. a 800 Erfurt Gloss. 275 Crabro, hirnitu. a 1000 Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 215/3 Crabro, hyrnetu. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. Ibid. 121/11 Crabro, hyrnet. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 211 Of calues i-rooted comeþ bees, and of hors i-roted comeþ harnettes. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 619/7 Vespa, a waps (et est vespa major illa, an hernet). 1535 Coverdale Deut. vii. 20 The Lorde thy God also shal sende hornettes amonge them. 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Crabro, a great waspe called an hornet. 1602 Narcissus (1893) 647 Thou huge and humminge humblebee, thou hornett. 1709 Swift Tritical Ess. Wks. 1755 II. i. 143 Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 261 It is chiefly in the hollow trunks of decayed trees that the Hornets form their nest. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. xvii. 10 Words of anger and resentment, Hot and humming like a hornet. |
b. In early glosses and vocabularies (continental as well as
Eng.: see Verwijs and Verdam,
Middelndl. Wbk.), there is some confusion between the hornet and hornet-fly or large gadfly, due
app. to uncertain use of L.
œstrus.
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 121/12 Œstrum, beaw uel hyrnette. 1530 Palsgr. 232/2 Hornet a flye. 1658 Phillips, A Hornet, a kinde of Insect, called in Latin Crabro, which useth to infest horses and other creatures, and is ingendred of the carcases of dead horses. |
2. transf. and
fig. An enemy that attacks persistently and with virulence;
esp. in
phr. hornets' nest,
nest of hornets.
to bring a hornets' nest about one's ears,
arouse a nest of hornets: to stir up a host of enemies around one; also, trouble, opposition. Also,
to stir up a hornets' nest.
| 1590 Nashe Pasquil's Apol. i. C ij, They are no better then the Prophets, which dwelt as it were in a nest of Hornets. 1739–40 Richardson Pamela (1740) I. xxvi. 78, I rais'd a Hornet's Nest about my Ears, that..may have stung to Death my Reputation. 1751–73 Jortin Eccl. Hist. (R.), He dared not speak out, and provoke the hornets. 1857 Trollope Barchester T. xiv, But Proudie, ass as he is, knows the world too well to get such a hornets' nest about his ears. 1921 Galsworthy To Let i. i. 21 An acid humour stirred in his Forsyte blood; a subtle pain divided by hair's-breadth from pleasure. If only June did not suddenly bring her hornets about his ears! 1921 H. Crane Let. 26 Nov. (1965) 71 But I also find that J stirred up a hornet's nest in me this summer with his words about getting away from current formulae. 1928 G. B. Shaw Intell. Woman's Guide Socialism lxxiv. 360 It is unlikely that a Proletarian House of Commons will suffer the nation's children to go on being taught Capitalist and Imperialist morality in the disguise of religion; and yet, the moment the subject is touched, what a hornet's nest is stirred up! 1966 Listener 4 Aug. 177/3 Judges have stirred up a hornets' nest in the sacred territory of ‘the right to strike’. 1969 I. Kemp Brit. G.I. in Vietnam xiii. 200 On the third landing zone we ran into a hornet's nest. 1973 W. Tute Resident iv. 67 The Ambassador wants you removed. You've got a hornet's nest buzzing round your head in Whitehall. |
† 3. The horned beetle or stag-beetle.
Obs.| 1585 Higins tr. Junius' Nomenclator 72/2 Cerf volant, a horned beetle: a bullflie, or hornet. 1598 Florio, Bucarone,..a beetle, a hornet. |
4. An artificial fly for salmon-fishing.
| 1867 F. Francis Angling xii. (1880) 434 The Hornets..have fat bodies dressed after the fashion of the ‘bumble’ trout fly. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
hornet host,
hornet sting;
hornet-haunted adj.;
hornet-clearwing,
-hawk,
-moth, names for certain moths of the genus
Sesia (see
quots.);
hornet-fly, a dipterous insect of the family
Asilidæ, a hawk-fly or robber-fly;
† hornet worm, ? the larva of the hornet.
| 1869 E. Newman Brit. Moths 16 The *Hornet Clearwing of the Osier (Sesia Bembeciformis). The Hornet Clear⁓wing of the Poplar (Sesia Apiformis). |
| 1752 Sir J. Hill Hist. Anim. 31 The *Hornet Fly. This is one of the largest of the fly kind; it equals the hornet in size. 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1843) II. 290, I have often been amused in my walks with the motions of the hornet fly (Asilus crabroniformis). |
| 1895 K. Grahame Golden Age 43, I scrambled through the hedge, avoiding the *hornet⁓haunted side. |
| 1832 J. Rennie Conspectus Butterfl. & Moths 27 The *Hornet Hawk (Tr[ochilium] Crabroniformis) appears in July. |
| 1834 M. Howitt Sk. Nat. Hist., Hornet (1851) 185 The *hornet-host is retreating to its den. |
| a 1450 Fysshynge w. angle (1883) 25 In Juyll..the water docke leyf worme & the *hornet worme. |
▪ II. hornet2 nonce-wd. [f. horn n. + -et1.] A diminutive horn.
| 1825 Lamb Vis. Horns Misc. Wks. (1871) 381 It was the least little hornet of a horn that could be framed. |