English
vespillo
Vespillo comes from Latin vespillo ‘an undertaker who buries paupers’, from vespa ‘wasp’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- ‘to weave’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*webʰ-1‘to weave’uncertain
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wóbʰseh₂1‘wasp’uncertain
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wospā1uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvespa2‘wasp’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvespillo3‘an undertaker who buries paupers’
- Englishearliest quotation 1642vespillo3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin vespa
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin vespillo, which cites Watkins
- 3 Wiktionary, English vespillo
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1642, Thomas Browne, (please specify the page): “Like vespilloes or gravemakers.”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*webʰ-Wiktionary, Latin vespa‘to weave’uncertain
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wóbʰseh₂Wiktionary, Latin vespa‘wasp’uncertain
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wospāWiktionary, Latin vespauncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvespaWiktionary, Latin vespillo, which cites Watkins‘wasp’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvespilloWiktionary, English vespillo‘an undertaker who buries paupers’
- Englishearliest quotation 1642vespilloWiktionary, English vespillo. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1642, Thomas Browne, (please specify the page): “Like vespilloes or gravemakers.”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- ‘to weave’
web, wave, weave, waffle, whiff, woof, weft, 4 more
through Proto-Indo-European *wóbʰseh₂ ‘wasp’
Today it means
noun One who carried out the dead bodies of the poor at night for burial.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “vespillo”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin vespa, Latin vespillo. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- / vespillo