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 🐞
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
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).
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".
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.
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?
And in Swedish, Nyckelpiga, which word for word translates to key-maid. The name comes from something like beeing connected to the Virgin Mary, keeper of the keys to heaven.
32 Comments
winkly@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 94d
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 🐞
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 94d
Well, that explains the buggalo -
SethTaylor@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 94d
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
atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 94d
i cant believe i have somehow misheard "vaca Domnului" as "ochiul Domnului"
one_old_coder@piefed.social · 15 pts · 94d
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).
Zachariah@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 94d
paranoia@feddit.dk · 6 pts · 94d
Coccinelle is just a derivative of the Latin name, which is from the Latin word for scarlet.
ByteJunk@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 94d
I assume another derivation is cochineal, aka carmine red, a dye extracted from insects.
XPost3000@lemmy.ml · 14 pts · 94d
"God's little cow"
Cows, also made by God:
ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml · 16 pts · 94d
They're God's big cows
thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 93d
those are the non-little ones
MutantTailThing@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 94d
In Dutch it’s lieveheersbeestje, meaning ‘dear Lord’s little beast’
pseudo@jlai.lu · 6 pts · 94d
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".
AlfalFaFail@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 94d
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.
pjuels@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 93d
In Danish, it's known as a "Mary-hen" (as in adult chicken)
thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 93d
perhaps that is connected with the British word, "ladybird"
Fierro@piefed.social · 11 pts · 94d
In my part of Argentina they're saint Anthony's little cow (vaquita de san Antonio)
BlackRoseAmongThorns@slrpnk.net · 10 pts · 94d
In Hebrew: Old (as in rabbi) Moses' Cow
John_CalebBradberton@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 94d
Am Irish. Can confirm.
nocturne@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 94d
Finnish it is, leppäkerttu, leppä (“blood”) (archaic) + Kerttu, after the red-orange color.
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 94d
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).
inari@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 93d
Little Jane
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 93d
Exactly
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 93d
onions dude
Drusas@fedia.io · 7 pts · 94d
But why?
Bigfishbest@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 93d
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?
lemonwood@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 93d
It could just have had a different name before cow domestication.
wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 93d
So, cows eat aphids alive & ass-first, too?
lime@feddit.nu · 3 pts · 94d
crazy. just call them key maidens like civilised people.
Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 94d
We call them "Mary's Beetles" as in Virgin Mary.
Apeman42@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 93d
Why is no one talking about the guinea pig? How is it related?
nope@piefed.social · 2 pts · 93d
And in Swedish, Nyckelpiga, which word for word translates to key-maid. The name comes from something like beeing connected to the Virgin Mary, keeper of the keys to heaven.