Lobster Is Named After a Locust
A lobster is a large marine crustacean with claws. Its Latin name meant locust, and for centuries it was food for the poor.
A lobster is a marine crustacean with a hard shell and two large claws. The name comes from Latin *locusta*, which meant both locust and lobster — the ancients saw one long armoured body with jointed legs and used the same word. Its status has reversed completely: in colonial New England lobster was fed to prisoners and servants, and it only became a luxury in the nineteenth century.
- A large clawed sea crustacean. *A boiled lobster.*
- Its meat as food. *Lobster with butter.*
- Spiny lobster — a clawless relative. *Caribbean spiny lobster.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | lobster | A live lobster. |
| Plural | lobsters | Two lobsters. |
| Compound | lobster pot | A wicker lobster pot. |
| Related | crustacean | A crustacean shell. |
| Related | langoustine | Grilled langoustines. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Lobsters turn red only when cooked.Heat destroys the other pigments.
- The boats haul their lobster pots at dawn.Pots are baited traps.
- Lobster was once considered poor food.So plentiful it washed up in heaps.
Related shellfish
- Crab — broader body, shorter tail
- Crayfish — freshwater, much smaller
- Langoustine — slender, also called Dublin Bay prawn
- Spiny lobster — no large claws, long antennae
- Prawn and shrimp — smaller, ten-legged relatives
From Old English *loppestre*, altered from Latin *locusta*. The same Latin word gives *locust*, which is why an insect and a shellfish share an ancestor in the language if not in the sea.
Why do lobsters turn red when cooked?
Their shells contain a red pigment bound to a protein. Heat breaks the bond, and the red is left visible.
Was lobster really poor people's food?
Yes. In colonial New England it was so abundant that it was used as fertiliser and fed to prisoners and indentured servants.