How did the Cockroach Get its Name and Where does the Word Cockroach Come From?

Photo of author

Karen Hill

Captain John Smith described this unattractive insect in 1624: “A certain India Bug, called by the Spaniards a Cacarootch, the which creeping into Chests they eat and defile with their ill-sented dung.”

cockroach on a glass window

The Spanish name, however, is cucaracha, which the English, with usual disregard for foreign languages, converted to cockroach.

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