Etymograph

English

stridulate

Stridulate comes from Latin strīdulus ‘giving a shrill sound, creaking’, and goes back to strīdō.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstrīdō1‘utter a shrill or harsh sound’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstrīdulus1‘giving a shrill sound, creaking’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1969stridulate1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English stridulate
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor: “A window was open, and the crickets were stridulating…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstrīdōWiktionary, English stridulate‘utter a shrill or harsh sound’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstrīdulusWiktionary, English stridulate‘giving a shrill sound, creaking’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1969stridulateWiktionary, English stridulate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor: “A window was open, and the crickets were stridulating…”

Every English word from Latin strīdō

Today it means

verb To make a high-pitched chirping, grating, hissing, or squeaking sound, as male crickets and grasshoppers do, by rubbing certain body parts together.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “stridulate”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin strīdō / stridulate

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