sphexish

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰey-“bee”
2. Ancient Greek · derived fromσφήξ“wasp”
3. English todaysphexish

From sphex (“sand wasp of Sphex or an allied genus”) + -ish (suffix meaning ‘being like, similar to, typical of’), coined by the American scientist and scholar of comparative literature Douglas Hofstadter (born 1945) in a September 1982 “Metamagical Themas” column in Scientific American, after a study of the behaviour of sphexide wasps. Sphex is derived from Ancient Greek σφήξ (sphḗx, “wasp”), either from Proto-Indo-European *bʰey- (“bee”) or a Pre-Greek word.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 1982 Of animal behaviour: deterministic, preprogrammed.