Forms: 5 catyrpel, 6 -pyllar, catirpiller, 7 catterpiller, 7–8 -pillar, 6– caterpiller, -pillar. [Catyrpel, in Promp. Parv., may be merely an error of the scribe for catyrpelour (or -er); Palsgr. has the full form. Generally compared with the synonymous OF. chatepelose, lit. ‘hairy or downy cat’ (cf. the Sc. name hairy woubit ‘woolly bear’), of which the ONF. would be catepelose. This is a possible source, though no connection is historically established: the final sibilant might be treated in Eng. as a pl. formative, and the supposed sing. catepelo would be readily associated with the well-known word piller, pilour, pillager, plunderer, spoiler. This is illustrated by the fact that in the fig. sense, piller and caterpiller are used synonymously in a large number of parallel passages (see sense 2). The regular earlier spelling was with -er; the corruption caterpillar (? after pillar), occasional in 17th c., was adopted by Johnson, and has since prevailed.
(Some think the word a direct compound of piller. The giving to hairy caterpillars a name derived from the cat, is seen not only in the French word cited, but also in Lombard. gatta, gattola (cat, kitten), Swiss teufelskatz (devil’s cat); cf. also F. chenille (:—canicula little dog), Milan. can, cagnon (dog, pup) a silk-worm (Wedgwood). Cf. also catkin, F. chaton, applied to things resembling hairy caterpillars.)]
1. The larva of a butterfly or moth; sometimes extended to those of other insects, especially those of saw-flies, which are also hairy.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 63. Catyrpel, wyrm among frute, erugo.
1530. Palsgr., 203/2. Catyrpyllar worme, chatte pellevse.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxxvii[i]. 46. He gaue their frutes vnto the catirpiller.
1597. Shaks., Rich. II., III. iv. 47. Her wholesome Hearbes Swarming with Caterpillers.
1611. Bible, Joel ii. 25. And I will restore to you the yeeres that the locust hath eaten, the canker worme, and the caterpiller, and the palmer worme, my great armie which I sent among you.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. Catter-pillers, which turne into butter-flies.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 193. Cut off the Webs of Caterpillars, &c. from the Tops of Twigs and Trees to burn.
1859. Tennyson, Guinevere, 33. The gardener’s hand Picks from the colewort a green caterpillar.
1880. Earle, Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 3), 434. We know that the caterpiller and the butterfly are the same individual.
2. fig. A rapacious person; an extortioner; one who preys upon society. In early times distinctly transferred, and used synonymously with the earlier piller, but afterwards only fig. with conscious reference to the literal sense.
[1475. Bk. Noblesse (1860), 31. Pilleris, robberis, extorcioneris.
1539. Bible (Great), 1 Cor. vi. 10. Nether theues, nether couetouse … nether pyllers.
1545. Joye, On Daniel, xi. Extortioner and pieller of the people.
a. 1570. Becon, Jewel of Joye, Wks. 1564, II. 16 b. Pollers and pyllers of the contrey.]
1541. Barnes, Wks. (1573), AAa iij. The Augustine friers in London … those Caterpillers and blouddy beastes.
1552. Latimer, Serm. Lord’s Prayer, v. 40. The children of this worlde, as couetous persons, extorcioners, oppressours, catirpillers, userers.
1579. Gosson (title), The Schoole of Abuse, Conteining a plesaunt inuectiue against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Iesters, and such like Caterpillers of a Commonwelth.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 417. Empson and Dudley (cater-pillers of the common-wealth, hatefull to all good people).
1631. High Commission Cases (1886), 259. For his saying against the officers that they are caterpillers I let that passe.
1696. Phillips, s.v., When we see a company of Lacqueys at the tail of a coach, we say, There goes a Bunch of Caterpillers.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xl. 211. Such nurseries of drones and caterpillars, to prey upon it.
1826. Scott, Lett. Mal. Malagr., ii. 66. We have become the caterpillars of the island, instead of its pillars.
3. Black Caterpillar: a. The larva of the Turnip Saw-fly. b. A fly or an imitation of it used as a bait in angling.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 113. The Black-Caterpillar. Comes on about the beginning of May…; if winds and clouds appear, they then grow weak for want of the sun, and fall upon the waters in great quantities. The wings are made from a feather out of a jay’s wing, the body of an ostrich’s feather.
1799. G. Smith, Laborat., II. 303. Black-caterpillar-fly.
1848. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 6. 329. The larva of Athalia centifolæ … named the nigger or black caterpillar, is an enemy … much dreaded by the agriculturist…. In 1780 it was abundant in Northumberland.
4. Herb. A name given to the leguminous plants of the genus Scorpiurus from the shape of their pods. b. By Gerard Myosotis palustris, the true Forget-me-not or Scorpion-grass, ‘is included in the same chapter and under the same name’ (Britten and Holland, Plant-n.).
1597. Gerard, Herbal, i. § 10. 267. Our English gentlewomen and others do call it Caterpillers, of the similitude it hath with the shape of that canker worme called a caterpiller.
1672. W. Hughes, Flower Gard. (1683), 8. Snails and Caterpillers (so called from the similitude they have with those Animals) are all the sorts raised from Seed sowed in April…; they cannot properly be called Flowers, but they have very pretty heads.
1713. Petiver, Rare Plants, in Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 212. Prickley Catterpillars.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbados, 170.
1866. Treas. Bot., Caterpillar, a name for Scorpiurus.
5. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attrib. Of, pertaining to, or resembling a caterpillar. b. caterpillar-catcher, a sub-family of shrikes that feed on caterpillars; caterpillar-eater, (a.) the larva of an ichneumon fly; (b.) = caterpillar catcher; caterpillar-fly = 3 above; caterpillar-plant = 4 above; caterpillar-like a.
a. 1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., iv. (1878), 67. The caterpillar and cocoon stages.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 95. The caterpillar wooden bridges crawling with innumerable legs across the flats of Charles.
b. 1880. A. R. Wallace, Isl. Life, 407. *Caterpillar-catchers … abundant in the old-world tropics.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., One of the species of these *caterpillar eaters.
1611. Cotgr., Chenillé, *Caterpiller-like.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., II. ix. (ed. 2), 237. A fleshy, caterpillar-like body.
1841. Penny Cycl., XXI. 415/1. The Ceblepyrinæ, or *Caterpillar Shrikes.
1847. Emerson, Woodnotes, i. Wks. (Bohn), I. 220. Pondering clouds, Grass-buds, and *caterpillar-shrouds.
Hence Caterpillared a., fitted with a caterpillar.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 111. The Troute … deceiued with a Catterpillerd hooke.
