seventeen-year locust
- noun
- /ˈsɛvənˌtiːn jɪr ˈloʊkəst/
- US
:
langosta de diecisiete años
- You take me on a hike in the woods, and it is the year of the seventeen-year locust plague and the locusts.
Examples
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Children watched in awe as the seventeen-year locusts emerged from the ground, a natural spectacle that happens only every few decades.
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The fields were alive with seventeen-year locusts, their arrival marking the end of a long wait for their cycle.
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In 2025, the population of seventeen-year locusts will emerge, filling the air with their buzzing sound.
Synonyms
1
8.5
A North American insect that appears above ground in very large numbers every 13 or 17 years
A North American insect that lives underground for many years and emerges in large numbers every 13 to 17 years
A North American cicada that emerges from underground every 13 or 17 years in large numbers
Surface Forms
Morphology
seventeen-year + locust
The compound combines the numeral adjective 'seventeen-year' with the noun 'locust' to mean a locust-type insect associated with a seventeen-year cycle, so a B1 learner who knows numbers and noun-modifier patterns can derive this basic meaning. There is a factual detail (the term refers to periodical cicadas rather than true migratory locusts) that learners might not know, but that does not prevent understanding the compositional sense.
Etymology
The name seventeen-year locust comes from a kind of insect that spends nearly seventeen years underground as a young insect and then many of them come out together and make a very loud noise. So the name refers to an insect that appears 'about every seventeen years' in huge groups.