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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

murder hornet en · NOUN

Etymology

Calque of Japanese 殺人スズメバチ (literally “murder hornet”), from 殺人 (satsujin, “さつじん”)+スズメバチ (suzumebachi, “雀蜂”), equivalent to murder + hornet. From its ability to kill people through its painful venomous stings, which can pierce through most regular beekeeper suits, killing some dozens of people a year in Japan; and its propensity for killing off honeybee colonies.

Meanings

  1. (informal) Synonym of Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) ^((See discussion))
    • Winter is on its way out. The days are getting longer, vaccinations are ramping up and an end to the pandemic could be in sight. But murder hornets don't care about any of that. 2021 March 17, Maria Morava, Scottie Andrew, “Murder hornet season is around the corner”, in CNN.com:
    • 2020, " "Murder hornets" have now entered the U.S. — and they could decimate the honeybee population ", Li Cohen, CBS News But murder hornets become most dangerous from late summer to early fall, when they ravage through honey bee populations.
    • 2020, "Deadly Hornet Massacres a Mouse on Video, They're Huge", TMZ It's unclear if this is, in fact, a murder hornet
    • 2020, "Murder Hornets Are In Canada Because 2020 Just Keeps On Going", Sima Shakeri, Huffington Post The New York Times reported about the hornets on Saturday that shared graphic details of the piles of honeybee corpses left behind after murder hornets infiltrated their hives.
    • Their murderous rampages on bee colonies have earned them the nickname ‘murder hornets’ from entomologists. 2017 January 1, “The Asian Giant Hornet, The Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Is The Stuff Of Nightmares”, in All That's Interesting:
    • 2020, "The murder hornet is the 2020 B-plot you probably didn’t see coming", Kim Lyons, The Verge Some days the news is upbeat and interesting and then other days the writers of the script for 2020: The Horror Show throw in a murder hornet plot twist because a pandemic is apparently not terrifying enough without two-inch hornets that rip the heads off of honeybees.

Forms

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murder hornets Number=Plur lexicographic

Relateds

killer bee

Synonyms

Asian giant hornet

Translations (2)

ja 殺人スズメバチ (colloquial terms for Asian giant hornet) · fi tappajaherhiläinen (colloquial terms for Asian giant hornet)