Fireflies have lots of different names in English, including lightning bug, lighter fly, glowworm, and third-shift mosquito. These insects have similarly poetic names in other languages. In Brazil, it’s a vagalume or wandering light, and the Hebrew term for it translates as “little ember or little spark.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Names for Lightning Bugs and Fireflies”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
I love living here in San Diego, but every once in a while I get a little nostalgic for things I remember from back east.
And that happened to me the other day when I saw some exquisite photographs online of those little bugs that fly through the air and glow at night.
Fireflies.
Right.
Well, fireflies.
Lightning bugs.
Yeah, I grew up saying lightning bug.
Yeah, so did I in Missouri.
And I was just so struck by seeing them that, of course, I drilled down and started looking at all these other words for firefly or lightning bug because there are other terms around the country.
Some people call them lighter flies or glow worms.
Some people call them third shift mosquitoes, which I really like.
But it’s also cool to look at the words for fireflies in other languages because in Brazil they call them vagalumi, which means wandering light.
Oh, interesting.
I can hear that, the vaga, like vagabond, lumi, like lumia or something.
Yes, exactly.
And the Hebrew word for this insect translates as little ember or little spark.
Sure, they’re like a spark coming up from a wood fire just floating up on the heat of the flames.
Until it goes out, right?
Right.
So I love the way that they’ve inspired these poetic names.
They also just bring back so many memories for me, you know, gathering them in a jar and letting them loose at the end of the night and being the first kid to see a lightning bug.
Was that a big thing in your family?
Oh, yeah.
We didn’t really have that.
It meant summer had arrived.
It meant school was out or almost out.
Well, we’d love to hear your stories about the things that you miss and the words for them, or your own terms from your own country for lightning bugs or fireflies.
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