芋虫

Japanese

Alternative spelling
芋蟲 (kyūjitai)

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

イモムシ

Wikipedia ^ja

Compound of 芋 (imo, “potato, tuber”) +‎ 虫 (mushi, “bug, worm”). Refers specifically to hairless caterpillars, most specifically to varieties that eat the leaves of the 里芋 (sato imo, “taro”) or 薩摩芋 (satsuma imo, “sweet potato”).^[1]^[2]^[3]

First attested in the Nippo Jisho of 1603.^[1]^[4]

芋(いも)虫(むし) or 芋虫(イモムシ) • (imomushi)

a hairless caterpillar [from 1603]
- 1999 September 23, “アシッドクロウラー [Acid Crawler]”, in Vol.5, Konami:
  
  巨(きょ)大(だい)ないもむし。強(きょう)力(りょく)な酸(さん)をはき、何(なん)でも溶(と)かしてしまう。
  Kyodai na imomushi. Kyōryoku na san o haki, nan demo tokashite shimau.
  A gigantic caterpillar. Its acid is so strong it can melt anything.
(figurative) an angry person (from the way that a person may puff up when angry and go red and swollen in the face, similar to the defense behaviors of some caterpillars) [from 1690]
(figurative, derogatory) a dummy; a term used to ridicule a person [from 1749]
a children's song and game, played by everyone squatting and holding onto the waist or shoulders of the person in front, and the whole group trying to move like a caterpillar [from 1830s]
Synonyms: 芋虫ころころ (imomushi korokoro), 芋虫ごろごろ (imomushi gorogoro)
a kind of traditional toy made to look and move like a caterpillar
Synonyms: 俵転ばし (tawara korobashi), 俵返り (kawaga-gaeri)

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as イモムシ.

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
^ Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN
^ “芋虫”, in 世界大百科事典第２版 (Sekai Dai-hyakka Jiten Dainihan, “Heibonsha World Encyclopedia Second Edition”)‎^[1] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Heibonsha, 1998
^ Ishizuka, Harumichi (1976 [1603]) 日葡辞書: パリ本 [Nippo Jisho: Paris edition / Vocabulary of the Language of Japan]‎^[2] (overall work in Japanese and Portuguese), Tōkyō: Bensei Publishing, entry available at Google Books here, left-hand column, headword Imomuxi
^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN