caperer

plural caperers

1. One who capers, leaps, and skips about, or dances.

   The nimble caperer on the cord.

   1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fourteenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC

2. A caddis fly larva.

   […] caddis insects, the tribe to which the caperer belongs, may be said to do either the one or the other.

   1925, Horatio Gordon Hutchinson, A Fellowship of Anglers, page 93

   1 more example

   The fairies had washed him, you see, in the swift river, so thoroughly, that not only his dirt, but his whole husk and shell had been washed quite off him, and the pretty little real Tom was washed out of the inside of it, and swam away, as a caddis does when its case of stones and silk is bored through, and away it goes on its back, paddling to the shore, there to split its skin, and fly away as a caperer, on four fawn-coloured wings, with long legs and horns. They are foolish fellows, the caperers, and fly into the candle at night, if you leave the door open.

   1863, Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby