Forms: α. 1 wibl, wibil, wifel, 5 wyvyl, -oll, 6 wyvel(l(e, 6–7 wivel(l; 5 wevel, -yl, 6 wevell (wew-), -yll, 6–7 wevill, 6–8 wevil; 6 weavill (7 -il), 6–7, 9 weavel (7 -ell); 6 weevell, 6– weevil (6–7 -ill). β. dial. 7 wibel, -ill, 9 wibble; 8–9 weeble, 9 weabel. γ. dial. 7 whule, 8–9 whool, 9 wheul, whewl, wule, weuel, yule. [OE. wifel masc., beetle, corresp. to OS. (gold-)wivil glowworm, MLG. wevel, OHG. wibil, wipil beetle, chafer, ON. vifill in tordyfill dung-beetle (MSw. pl. torddöffla, Sw. tordyfvel, Norw. tordivel; cf. OE. tordwifel):—OTeut. *weƀilo-z, f. *weƀ- to move about briskly (see WAVE v.) or *weƀ- to WEAVE, ‘from the filaments spun for the larva-case’ (Skeat). From the same root is the synonymous OE. wibba (:—*weƀjon-) beetle, glowworm.
For the special phonology in English cf. beetle repr. OE. bitela; the OE. i when lengthened in an open syllable became ē in ME. The β and γ forms illustrate normal dialectal alterations of the v.
In the 16th and 17th c. some writers app. confused the name of the weevil with that of the weasel, using wesell, weezel, for the insect; see the quotations under WEEZEL.
1. In OE., a beetle of any kind; in later use, any beetle classed under the group Rhyncophora, the larvæ of which, and sometimes the beetles themselves, are destructive by boring into grain, fruit, nuts, the bark of trees, etc.; esp. a beetle belonging to any of the numerous species of the family Curculionidæ, the true weevils; also one belonging to the families Brenthidæ and Bruchidæ.
The best known are the corn-weevil, Calandra granaria, a small red beetle that does much damage in granaries by boring into the grains of corn in order to deposit its eggs, and the NUT-WEEVIL. For clover-, grain-, palm-, pea-, rice-weevil see those words.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), C 151. Cantarus, wibil. Ibid., P 110. Panpila, wibl.
a. 1000. Riddles, xli. 73 (Gr.). Is þæs gores sunu gonge hrædra Þone we wifel wordum nemnað.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 523/2. Wevyl, or malte boode (Winch. MS. gurgulio).
1455. Rolls of Parlt., V. 324/2. Whether ye Malt be bad or good, all is cast togeder in soo grete a multitude, that noo man can kepe it from Wormes called Wevels.
1469. in Plumpton Corr. (Camden), 21. Also that you gar the malt be windowd, or it be laid in any garners, for ells there will brede wyvolls in it.
1528. Star Chamber Cases (Selden Soc.), II. 174. The wyche malte was etten with wewells.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xvi. (1617), 284. The Husbandman createth not the wiuell in the Corne.
1623. T. Scot, Highw. God, 78. Mothes are no worse in cloth, rust in yron, nor whules in Mault, then these in the Commonwealth.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 696. A Worm called a Wevill … that feedeth upon Roots.
1628. May, Virg. Georg., I. 10. There little Weeuills heapes of corne destroy.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. vi. 284. Your Malt … not having had Time to contract … Weebles, (an Insect that eats out the Heart of Malt).
1750. W. Ellis, Country Housew. Fam. Compan., 7. Whools, or Wevils, or Maggots, may be screened and sifted from the Flower.
1760. R. Brown, Compl. Farmer, II. 95. Pease … are very apt to breed worms, wevils, and mites.
1817. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., II. xxiii. 322. The whole tribe of weevils (Curculionidæ).
1834. J. Ross’s Van Diemen’s Land Ann., 70. The wheat of New South Wales is seldom six months old before it is affected with the weavel.
1863. J. G. Wood, Illustr. Nat. Hist., III. 474. We now arrive at a vast group of beetles, embracing several thousand species, which are popularly classed under the name of Weevils.
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., v. If you had the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit you would catch them still.
b. collect. sing.
1866. Standard, 16 July, 5/2. The plaintiff stated that he found the malt contained ‘weevil,’ a very destructive insect.
1908. Animal Managem. (War Office), 99. Beans should be hard and dry … and free from weevil.
c. fig. and in fig. context.
1598. E. Guilpin, Skial., Sat., VI. E 3. If that some weeuil, mault-worme, barly-cap, Hearing my lines halfe-snorting ore his kanne, Sweares them for good.
1793. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Epist. Pope, 179. The French are … downright devils; In heavenly wheat, accurs’d destructive weevils!
2. Applied to other insects or their larvæ.
1789. T. Wright, Meth. Watering Meadows (1790), 41. One of the ewes was kill’d, and … its liver was putrid, and replete with the insect called the Fluke or Weevil.
3. attrib. and Comb., as weevil-beetle, tribe; weevil-damaged adj.; † weevil malt, malt infested with weevils.
1720. Strype, Stow’s Surv., II. V. xi. 202. In the End of the Year they commonly brewed with Wyvel Malt.
1817. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxi. II. 235. The weevil tribe.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, II. viii. (1890), 208. In some weevil-beetles … there is a great difference between the male and female in the length of the rostrum or snout.
1890. Kapunda Herald, 26 July, 2/4. Sheepskins.—… Broken and weevil-damaged skins bring from 13/4d. to 31/4d. per lb.
