Forms: 1 ceafor, cefer, 5 cheaffer, chauer, 7– chafer, chaffer. [OE. cefer corresponds to OS. (MDu. and mod.Du.) kever, OHG. chevar (chevaro), MHG. kever, kefere, Ger. käfer beetle:—OTeut. type kefro-z; OE. ceafor, if from earlier *cafr, points to OTeut. ablaut-variant *kafroz, -uz. Possible derivations are from a stem kaf- to gnaw (see CHAVEL), or from that of CHAFF, an animal enclosed in scales or husks. Mod. German use applies the name to all Coleoptera, from the ladybird to the stag-beetle.]
A name given to certain beetles, now chiefly the COCK-CHAFER and ROSE-CHAFER; used alone, it generally means the former of these. Apparently, originally applied to species destructive to plants.
α. form chafer.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 121. Bruchus, ceafor.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. civ. 30 [cv. 34]. Sona cwoman gangan gærshoppan, and grame ceaferas [bruchus].
c. 1400. Trevisa’s Higden (Rolls), II. 21 (MS. α). Of hors i-roted comeþ cheaffers [1387 harnettes, Caxton chauers].
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon. (1634), 59. These [dors] … do openly engender with their Females, as the chafers do.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1828), II. xxi. 254. Take one of the common chafers or dung-beetles into your hand.
β. form chaffer.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 314. The great appearances of Chaffers, or other Insects.
1770–4. A. Hunter, Georg. Ess. (1803), III. 99. These insects [Cock-Chaffer] are called … the Chaffer,… the Jeffry-Cock, the May-bug, and (in Norfolk) the Dor.
1829. [J. L. Knapp], Jrnl. Naturalist (1830), 325. Every sparrow that flies by has a chaffer in its mouth.
