Hang on a minute. That would indicate that ladybugs, or the divine mini-bovine, was likely named after the domestication of cows, since cows being an easy go to for naming something without name. Which has some interesting implications for the development of European languages. The indo-European group that moved west likely would have with them domesticated cows when they named the ladybug. Which means either it wasn’t worth naming during the thousands of years of human language when humans were hunter gatherers, or the ladybugs were not native to the area the cow-domesticators came from. Or am I missing something?
It could just have had a different name before cow domestication.
Well, that explains the buggalo -
So, cows eat aphids alive & ass-first, too?
The lady in ladybug is a reference to Mary. Before that, the middle English was, you guessed it, a reference to a cow, Godyscow. Also, in Polish, it’s God’s cow. Welsh gets short red cow. There’s also a archaic French term that’s God’s cow.
The other animal that seems to show up is hen.
In Danish, it’s known as a “Mary-hen” (as in adult chicken)
“God’s little cow”
Cows, also made by God:
They’re God’s big cows
In Portuguese it’s… Joaninha. No, it’s not even close to God’s Little Cow. It’s a form of Joana (Yochanah, hebrew for God’s Grace).
Little Jane
Exactly
It’s mostly called “gărgăriță” in Romanian, but also - and I just found out thanks to this post - “vaca Domnului”, which translates to… you’ve guessed it: God’s cow
i cant believe i have somehow misheard “vaca Domnului” as “ochiul Domnului”
Ants cultivate aphids like we do cows, farming them for their secretions. Ladybugs eat aphids. Ants must see ladybugs as something like a bear that comes from the wild and devastates their livestock. To the ants, god’s little cow might be a red devil 🐞
In Dutch it’s lieveheersbeestje, meaning ‘dear Lord’s little beast’
In French, it has a completly different name but is nickname “God’s little beast”. I won’t be surprised if in some language the cow is somehow the “default beast”.
Am Irish. Can confirm.
In my part of Argentina they’re saint Anthony’s little cow (vaquita de san Antonio)
In Hebrew: Old (as in rabbi) Moses’ Cow
In French, coccinelle means literally nothing. But it is also called “bête à bon dieu” which can be translated to “the good god’s beast” (good god as in god is a good guy).
Coccinelle is just a derivative of the Latin name, which is from the Latin word for scarlet.
I assume another derivation is cochineal, aka carmine red, a dye extracted from insects.
But why?
Finnish it is, leppäkerttu, leppä (“blood”) (archaic) + Kerttu, after the red-orange color.
