Firefly

[M07yth]

Hey everyone,

I was just curious as to what the word for the insect, known as the "firefly" in English, is in other languages.

In Jamaican Creole it's "Piiniwaali"

 

[Sowka]

Hello M07yth

In German, it's "Glühwürmchen". Hm, the official word seems to be "Leuchtkäfer", but I prefer Glühwürmchen (there's also a nice song about it).

 

[RaLo18]

In Hebrew:
גחלילית (gakhlilit)

 

[Favara]

Catalan: Cuc de llum
Literally, a "worm of light".

 

[jazyk]

In Portuguese: vaga-lume or sometimes pirilampo. I've heard that vaga-lume was originally caga-lume (light shitter) but that the name was changed to sound better. Vaga-lume would have a blander translation as light rambler, which doesn't make much sense if you think about it.

 

[apmoy70]

In Greek:
Πυγολαμπίς (-ίδα), f., (Piɣolambis or Piɣolambiða, both feminine nouns).
Colloquially it is called κωλοφωτιά, kolofotia, f., lit. ass-fire.

 

[hadast]

hi! in Spanish "luciérnaga"

 

[darlanxavier445903]

Finnish : tulikärpänen
Croatian : svitac
Swedish : eldfluga

 

[Δημήτρης]

In Greek:
Πυγολαμπίς (-ίδα), f., (Piɣolambis or Piɣolambiða, both feminine nouns).
Colloquially it is called κωλοφωτιά, kolofotia, f., lit. ass-fire.

Πυγολαμπίδα also means "ass-fire", in ancient Greek.

 

[Volcano]

Turkish:

ateş böceği

 

[Miguelillo 87]

In Mayan (spoken in the south of Mexico and some parts of Central america): Kookay

In Náhuatl (the aztec language): Copitl and Icpitl (synonims)

 

[Encolpius]

Finnish : tulikärpänen
Croatian : svitac
Swedish : eldfluga

what does tulikärpänen literally mean? thanks.

 

[Encolpius]

Turkish:

ateş böceği

what does it literally mean? thanks.

 

[Encolpius]

Hungarian: szentjánosbogár (Saint John's bug)

Czech: světluška or svatojánská muška (Saint John's bug)

and I hope Austrians use: Johanniskäfer.

 

[sakvaka]

what does tulikärpänen literally mean? thanks.

It means "firefly" - even literally

 

[Nizo]

The Esperanto word is lampiro.

 

[Awwal12]

Russian:
Светлячок /svetlyachok/; it is an affectionate diminutive form of "светляк" /svetlyak/, which means something like "light one", I believe.

 

[rusita preciosa]

In Argentinean Spanish I heard people say
bichito de luz (little creature of light)

 

[Grop]

French : une luciole (doesn't mean anything else, just like dog only means dog - but it seems to come from Latin lux).

It may also be called un ver luisant: litterally a glowing worm, although it isn't a worm.

 

[Frank06]

Hi,

In Dutch:
glimworm (shine+worm)
vuurvliegje (fire+fly)
gloeiworm (glow+worm)

Groetjes,

Frank

 

[Flaminius]

Japanese: 蛍 (hotaru)

 

[Equinozio]

In Tagalog, it's alitaptap.

 

[Trauer]

In Polish pretty much like in Czech: świetlik or robaczek świętojański. The 1st one meaning also a skylight and the other one Saint John's little bug.

 

[Rallino]

Turkish:
Ateş böceği

what does it literally mean? thanks.

This will be a very late response, but I thought I'd write it anyway

Ateş böceği literally means: Fire bug.

 

[OneStroke]

Chinese fireflies are very lucky as they have their very own character: 螢 (ying). However, we usually add '火蟲' (fire bug) at the end so it becomes 螢火蟲 (yinghuochong).

 

[darush]

in Persian:
shabtāb= shab+tāb
shab:night
tāb: light emitting

 

[Selyd]

In Ukrainian:
Світля́к - /To shine/
Блищáк - /To shine/
Блискавéць - /Lightning/
Огняни́ця - /Fire/

 

[Nizo]

En Esperanto, lampiro​.

 

[Sashalee Morrison]

Hey everyone,

I was just curious as to what the word for the insect, known as the "firefly" in English, is in other languages.

In Jamaican Creole it's "Piiniwaali"

Never seen/read the spelling you used, but peenie wallie is related to the word peelie wallie from the Scottish dialect. In the Scottish dialect, it refers to a person who's pale/ill-looking. The fireflies give off a pale-whitish/ yellowish light and some make a sound when they flap thier wings or when they fly about, making a thud-like sound upon bumping into stuff. It started out in the early nineteenth century as the single word peelie for a person who is thin, gaunt or pale. As cited from the dictionary, "Dictionaries usually suggest it as an imitation of a slight, high-pitched sound, perhaps a noise that someone in distress might make. If so, it’s linked to another imitative Scots word, peek, for the feeble cry of a small bird, animal and insect noise or whimper of complaint, or an insignificant person with a piping voice", (Quintion 1999). Scottish-Jamaicans started using the term and it became widespread. It's not just Patois slang, but is also Standard Jamaican English.

 

[Sardokan1.0]

In Italian it's known as "lucciola" it's a diminutive derived from "luce" (light)

In Sardinian it's known as "culiluche or culilughe" it's a composite word : "culi" is the Latin genitive of "culus" (ass), it's a relic of genitive present in many Sardinian adjectives, while "luche or lughe" (light) derives from Latin "lucem", accusative of "lux" (with classical pronunciation "lukem" -> luke/lughe). So, if we translate it considering the genitive the meaning should be "light of ass..."

 

[nimak]

In Macedonian it is known as светулка or diminutive светулче

светулка (svétulka) noun, fem. = firefly, lightning bug, glowworm

• светулка (svétulka) verb, 3rd p.s. = to sparkle; to emit flashing light
• светлина (svétlina) noun, fem. = light, glow, shine
• свети (svéti) verb, 3rd p.s. = to shine, to glow

 

[Zareza]

In Romanian

licurici (< vb. a licuri < vb. a licări = to shine, to twinkle)

a licări < Lat. lūcēre < lūx (light)

 

[Penyafort]

Catalan: Cuc de llum
Literally, a "worm of light".

In Catalonia, the variant used is cuca de llum, which instead of 'worm of light' would translate as 'bug of light'.

Another possibility is the nice word lluerna [ʎuέɾnə], from Latin LUCERNA 'oil lamp'.

 

[ThomasK]

But all in all it turns out to be a flying worm, so it seems, or at least a flying insect... Or what do you think?

 

[Sardokan1.0]

But all in all it turns out to be a flying worm, so it seems, or at least a flying insect... Or what do you think?

It's both. The female is unable to fly, she actually has no wings, and it's like a chubby insect with a long segmented abdomen similar to a worm, she lives underground and she produces the light from the abdomen to lure the males to her den. While the male specimen are littler than the female, and they fly, to move fast towards the female's light, also the male specimen produce light from the abdomen.

You can see in the picture below, female and male.

Spoiler

 

[Armas]

It seems to me that "fireflies" is the family Lampyridae, which in Finnish is kiiltomadot (lit. "glowworms"). Some tropical species of Lampyridae are called tulikärpänen (lit. "firefly"). In Finland we have two species of Lampyridae, called kiiltomato (lit. "glowworm") and tuikemato (lit. "twinkleworm").