Etymology

scorpionfly

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Today it means: Any insect of the family Panorpidae, having a curved tail rather like a scorpion. Full definition →

English fly ← Middle English flye ← Old English flēoge
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The story

  1. Ancient Greekσκορπῐ́ος (skorpĭ́os)
  2. Latinscorpiō
  3. Old Englishsċorpio
  4. Old Frenchescorpioninflu.
  5. Middle Englishscorpioun
  6. Englishscorpion
  7. Proto-Indo-European*plew-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*plewk-
  9. Proto-Indo-European*pléwketi
  10. Proto-Germanic*fleuganądeverb.
  11. Proto-Germanic*fleugǭ
  12. Proto-West Germanic*fleugā
  13. Old Englishflēoge
  14. Middle Englishflye
  15. Englishfly
  16. English todayscorpionfly

From scorpion + fly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.