noun- Any of several edible marine crustaceans of the family Homaridae, especially of the genus Homarus, having stalked eyes, long antennae, and five pairs of legs, the first pair of which is modified into large pincers.
- Any of several crustaceans, such as the spiny lobster, that are related to the lobsters.
- The flesh of a lobster used as food.
intransitive verb lob·stered,
lob·ster·ing,
lob·sters To search for and catch lobsters.
Origin:
Origin: Middle English lopster, lobstere
Origin: , from Old English loppestre
Origin: , alteration (perhaps influenced by loppe, lobbe, spider)
Origin: of Latin locusta
.
Related Forms:
Word History: A lobster and a locust may share a common source for their name, that is, the Latin word
locusta, which was used for the locust and also for a crustacean that was probably a kind of lobster. We can see that
locusta would be the source of
locust, but it looks like an unlikely candidate as the source of
lobster. It is thought, however, that Old English
loppestre, the ancestor of
lobster, was formed from
locusta and the suffix
-estre used to make agent nouns (our
-ster). The change from Latin
locusta to Old English
loppestre may have been influenced by Old English
loppe, meaning “spider.”