cheslip

English

Etymology

Origin unknown, perhaps alteration of an earlier term influenced by cheeselip.[1]

Noun

a cheslip or woodlouse

cheslip (plural cheslips)

  1. (Britain, dialectal) A woodlouse.[2]
    • 1860, Ernest Adams, “On the names of the wood-louse”, in Transactions of the Philological Society, page 15:
      Mouffet states that “the Asiatic Greeks called them χγαμος from their likenesse[sic] to a bean (Galen), for it looks like it when the Cheslip rolls itself up into a round body.”
    • 1899, W.T. Fernie, Animal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, “Woodlouse”, page 524:
      In former times it was known as “Lugdor” and “Socchetre ;” and in common with the hoglouse it is familiar to rustics as “Churchlouse,” “Carpenter,” “Chinch,” or “Cheslip.”

Synonyms

References

  1. cheslip, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2016.
  2. cheslip in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

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