locust

Etymology

From Middle English locuste, locust, from Anglo-Norman locuste, Middle French locuste, and their source, Latin locusta (“locust, crustacean, lobster”). Doublet of langouste. The tree sense, originally referring to the carob (compare locust bean), is based on the resemblance of the trees' beanlike seed pods to the insect and is likely a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ἀκρίς (akrís). The sense in "Mainlander" is a calque of Cantonese 蝗蟲／蝗虫 (wong4 cung4), also meaning "locust".

noun

1. Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, (especially) the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria).
2. (now historical) A fruit or pod of the carob tree.
   Among other articles, they brought with them a great quantity of locusts, which are a kind of pulse, sweet and pleasant to the palate, and in shape resembling French beans, but longer. 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 9, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I
3. Any of various often leguminous trees and shrubs, especially of the genera Robinia and Gleditsia; the locust tree.
4. A cicada.
5. (Hong Kong, derogatory, offensive) A Mainlander.

verb

1. (intransitive) To come in a swarm.