ˈbalm-ˌcricket
[earlier baum-cricket, app. a mistranslation of G. baum-grille, ‘tree-cricket,’ by confusion with ME. baum balm. (Taken by Tennyson, he tells us, from Dalzel.)]
The cicada.
| 1783 Bailey, Cicada, the Baum-cricket, a genus of four-winged insects. 1783 Ainsworth Lat. Dict. ii, Cicada, a sauterelle, or, according to others, a balm-cricket. 1797 Dalzel Analec. Maj. II. 187 (note on Theocr. Idyll i. 148) τέττιξ, Cicada veterum..Cicada orni Linn., Angl. the Balm Cricket. 1833 Tennyson Dirge vii, The balm-cricket carols clear In the green that folds thy grave. |