lobster

What it means

1. countableuncountableA crustacean of the Nephropidae family, dark green or blue-black in colour turning bright red when cooked, with a hard shell and claws, which is used as a seafood.
2. Various other crustaceans that resemble true lobsters:
   1. countableuncountableA spiny lobster, also called the rock lobster, a crustacean of the Palinuridae family, pinkish red in colour, with a hard, spiny shell but no claws, which is used as a seafood.
   2. countableuncountableA slipper lobster (a crustacean of the family Scyllaridae).

In a sentence

[…] how the troops came marching out for evening exercise under Captain Preston; how pedestrians and street urchins taunted them, shouting "Lobsters," "Bloody-backs," and flinging snow-balls, turnips, […]

1912, Ralph Davol, Two Men of Taunton: In the Course of Human Events, 1731-1829, page 214

Where it comes from

1. Old Englishloppestre
2. Middle Englishloppestere
3. Englishlobster

From Middle English loppestere, lopster, from Old English loppestre, lopustre, lopystre, of uncertain origin. Some believe it to be a corruption of Latin lō̆custa (“grasshopper, locust”) + the Old English feminine agent suffix -estre. In Latin, the phrase lō̆custa marīna (literally "sea-grasshopper") signified a type of crustacean (shrimp or lobster). Alternatively, from Old English lobbe, loppe (“spider”) + the Old English feminine agent suffix -estre, equivalent to lop + -ster.