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prettygoodwordthrips (THRIPS) - n., any of several thousand minute insects (order Thysanoptera) with long, narrow wings fringed with hairs and that infest and feed on a wide variety of plants.
Including crop plants, and in addition to sucking the sap they can transmit viral diseases. Most are no more than 1mm long. Note that thirps is a singular noun with an identical plural (though you can sometimes see thrip as an alternative singular form) where the -ps was originally the Greek ψ (which we're more used to seeing at the front of words, as in ψychology, than the back end). Name applied by Linnaeus in 1758 using the Greek (thríps) for a woodworm. Close enough, I suppose.
---L.
Including crop plants, and in addition to sucking the sap they can transmit viral diseases. Most are no more than 1mm long. Note that thirps is a singular noun with an identical plural (though you can sometimes see thrip as an alternative singular form) where the -ps was originally the Greek ψ (which we're more used to seeing at the front of words, as in ψychology, than the back end). Name applied by Linnaeus in 1758 using the Greek (thríps) for a woodworm. Close enough, I suppose.
---L.
