Meaning

noun small air-breathing arthropod

noun a person who has a nasty or unethical character undeserving of respect

originBorrowed from Middle French insecte, from Latin īnsectum, from īnsectus (“cut into, cut up, with a notched or divided body”), from perfect passive participle of īnsecō (“to cut into, to cut up”), from in- + secō (“to cut”), from the notion that the insect's body is "cut into" three sections (head, thorax, abdomen). Calque of Ancient Greek ἔντομον (éntomon, “insect”), from ἔντομος (éntomos, “cut…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0