Forms: 1 bitula, bitela, ? betel; 5 bityl, bytylle; betylle, 6 betel, -ell, -yll, betle, bettil, -le; bitle, bytell, bittil, byttil, -el, -ell; 6– beetle. [OE. bitula, bitela (the sense of which is established by the glosses quoted) is app. a sb. formed on an adj. *bitul, bitol, biting, mordax (in early ME. BITEL, q.v.), f. bítan to BITE; cf. the gloss ‘mordiculus’ (little biter), which occurs in a list De Nominibus Insectorum in Wülcker, Voc., 122. As in similar OE. derivatives the i was certainly short; thence the ME. bityl, 16th c. bittil, and mod. dial. bittle. The form betlas, pointing to a nom. betel, has not been etymologically explained, but it may, if genuine, be the source of ME. betylle, 16th c. betel, mod. beetle, though the latter may also be from the normal bitela, with the vowel lengthened, as in evil from OE. yfel, weevil from OE. wifel (OHG. wibil), Sc. meikle from OE. mycil, dial. leetle from little, etc. The later forms are confused with those of BEETLE sb.1, whence also confusion in their fig. use: see sense 3.]
1. The class name for insects of the coleopterous order, having the upper pair of wings converted into hard sheaths or wing-cases (elytra) that close over the back, and protect the lower or true wings, which most species are able to use in flight.
a. 800. Epinal, Erfurt & Corpus Glosses (Sweet, O. E. T. 44, 45), Blattis, blatis, bitulum.
a. 1000. Harl. Gl., in Wülcker, Voc., 196. Blatis, bitelum.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Voc. (ibid.), 122. Mordiculus, bitela. [Also c. 1050 ibid. 448; and 456 Nigro colore, þa blacan betlas].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 37. Bytylle worme [v.r. bityl wyrme], buboscus.
c. 1450. in Wright, Voc., 255. Hic carembes, a betylle.
1552. Huloet, Bettil or byttil vermine, scarabæus.
1570. Levins, Manip., 124. A bittil, flee, scarabeus.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 308. An other compareth a Byttell with an Egle.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., III. i. 79. The poore Beetle that we treade vpon.
1653. Walton, Angler, 54. A Bob which … in time will be a Beetle.
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., I. 640. The beetle, whose characteristic is stupidity and unwieldiness of limbs, beats himself down against a tree, or overturns himself in crawling, and lies sprawling upon his back.
1852. T. Harris, Insects New Eng., 20. Beetles are biting-insects, and are provided with two pairs of jaws moving sidewise.
2. In popular use applied especially to those of black color, and comparatively large size; hence many coleopterous insects of different appearance, as the glow-worm, lady-birds, death-ticks, etc., are usually excluded, and other insects included under the name; among the latter are the Black-beetle or COCKROACH (q.v.), which is not a beetle.
c. 1050. [see 1.)
1530. Palsgr., 198/1. Bettle, a blacke flye.
1552. Huloet, Byttel, flye with a blacke huske.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. ii. 22. Beetles blacke approach not neere.
1864. Realm, 16 March, 8. Tosser is thrust into a cupboard among the blackbeetles.
1878. Black, Green Past., xvi. 132. They were at all events human beings … not black-beetles.
3. Taken as a type of blindness: see quot. 1747 (As dumb, as deaf as a beetle, see BEETLE sb.1 2.)
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Mark i. 5. Jerusalem … albeit she were in very dede as blynde as a betell.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 471/2. Wee cease not to bee bruite beasts, as blinde as betles.
1747. Baker, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 581. They frequently dash themselves against People’s Faces with great Violence, and by their so doing occasioned the common Proverb, As blind as a Beetle.
4. Hence fig. An intellectually blind person.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 931/2. They that had charge to guyde other, were poore blinde betels themselues.
1692. Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., v. (1851), 132. They … confute such a Beetle as you are.
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., I. 475. A blockhead, yea a numskull, not to say a beetle.
† b. attrib. or as adj. Blind-beetledness sb., the quality of being mentally blind as a beetle. Cf. also beetle-head in BEETLE sb.1 3.
1566. Stapleton, Ret. Untr. Jewell, iii. 91. With such Betle arguments as you make. Ibid., iv. 184. Peuish absurdite or blinde bettle ignorance.
1649. Lightfoot, Battle Wasp’s Nest, Wks. (1825), I. 389. If you must shame anybody for blind beetledness, it must be Mr. Heming.
5. Comb., as beetle-blind, -eyed, -grub; † beetle-wig (obs.), an ear-wig.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., xix. Thou nor no flie is so beetle-blinde.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. To Rdr. These beetle-eyed atheists may as well be deprived of their bodily eyes.
1595. Widowes Treas., C ii b. A medicine for to get the Beetelwigges out of a mans eare.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, To Rdr. 14. Hee was starke beetle-blind at broad noone day.
1884. Littel’s Living Age, 688. To get beetle-grubs out of the ground.
