avispa
Antigua and Barbuda Creole English
Noun
avispa
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /aˈbispa/ [aˈβ̞is.pa]
Audio (Spain): (file) - Rhymes: -ispa
- Syllabification: a‧vis‧pa
Etymology 1
Etymology tree
Inherited from Old Spanish biespa, from Latin vespa (“wasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *wobʰseh₂ (“wasp”). The initial /a/ may have been added by analogy with abeja (“bee”).[1] Doublet of vespa.
Alternative forms
- abispa (obsolete)
Noun
avispa f (plural avispas)
- wasp (any of many types of stinging flying insects resembling a hornet, normally of the suborder Apocrita)
- 1591, Richard Percyuall, “Abiſpa”, in Bibliotheca Hispanica. Containg a Grammar, with a Dictionaire in Spanish, English, and Latine […] (in Early Modern English), London: Iohn Iackson, page 56:
- Abiſpa, a waſpe, Veſpa.
- Avispa, a wasp, Vespa.
- (colloquial) quick-tempered person
Derived terms
Etymology 2
Verb
avispa
- inflection of avispar:
- third-person singular present indicative
- second-person singular imperative
References
- ^ Coromines, Joan; Pascual, José Antonio (1984), “avispa”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic etymological dictionary][1] (in Spanish), volume I (A–Ca), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 424
Further reading
- “avispa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025