Today's Word

Yesterday's Word

Archives

FAQ

Discuss
Email this
Feedback
RSS/XML
Permalink

A.Word.A.Day--vespiary

This week's theme: blend words.

vespiary (VES-pee-er-ee) noun

A nest or colony of wasps.

[Blend of Latin vespa (wasp) and apiary (a place where bees are kept).]

Italian scooter company Piaggio named their first product Vespa because they felt it looked and perhaps sounded like a wasp.

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)

"[William Bullitt] had moved into Charles Bedaux's Château de Candá, a perfect vespiary of Nazi spies and collaborators." Charles Higham; The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life; John Wiley & Sons; 2004.

X-Bonus