grasshop

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English grashoppe, grashope, from Old English græshoppa (“grasshopper”). More at grasshopper.

Noun

grasshop (plural grasshops)

1. (now rare, dialectal) grasshopper
   • 1839, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the literature of Europe, Volume 2:

     But by the scorched bank-sides i' thy footsteps still I go plodding: Hedge-rows hot do resound with grasshops mournfully squeaking.

   • 1868, Henry Wheeler Shaw, Josh Billings on Ice and Other Things:

     I don't want grasshops tew giv [sic] entirely out, not if they are a blessing, but i hav thought (to myself) if they would let the grass and cornstalks be, and pitch onto the burdoks and Canada thissells, i would bet a few dollars on the thissells, jist tew encourage the fight, and wouldn't care a cuss if they both got finally licked.

   • 1930, Holbrook Jackson, The Anatomy of Bibliomania - Volume 2 - Page 58:

     The margin was illumined all with golden rails And bees, enpictured with grasshops and wasps, With butterflies and fresh peacock tails, Engloried with flowers and slimy snails; [...]

   • 1995, G. Lish, The Quarterly - Volumes 29-30 - Page 18:

     [...] between a gulp and a vomit, when they're looking at you like you're the dumb one so you can't keep on staring at them. Maybe she ate grasshops. Maybe somebody put out food. I put out food.

Etymology 2

Back-formation from grasshopper.

Verb

grasshop (third-person singular simple present grasshops, present participle grasshopping, simple past and past participle grasshopped)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To move erratically here and there, like a grasshopper
   • 1935, Frank Crowninshield, Vanity Fair - Volume 43, Issue 6 - Page 35:

     It grasshops over the grass and bounds skyward. A matron crams a fresh stick of gum into her mouth and chews her words up with it.

   • 2011, Charles Ryan, Phoenix Strike:

     He had to grasshop her, using long poles cabled to a donkey-engine capstan. Slowly, laboriously the ship inched backward, her fireboxes glowing orange-red, the crack of blocks and the booming slam of her engines shattering the night.