wasp/jasper

[oscar5]

In which UK county are wasps known as jaspers?

[LISAB]

I definitely have heard them called this. Im from Nottingham.

[steve_nova]

I have heard them called this by someone where I live in Northumberland.

[Hamish]

John Shuttleworth talks about wasps as Jaspers in his 400 bus stop series and explains that it is a term from Yorkshire. I have lived in the North East and Nottingham and have never heard anyone from those places use the term ... but then I don't tend to talk about wasps much. Ta Hamish

[blundell]

Born and brought up in Nth Lincolnshire and my old man has always called wasps jaspers, as did my grand parents.....I'd suspect it to be a nth notts, sth yorks, nth lincolnshire phrase....

[Korky]

I have lived within the county of Hampshire all my life and can definately remember being at school in Southampton and calling wasps jaspers as did all of my friends. This has tended to stay with me all my life. I am now 48 years of age and still tend to call a wasp a jasper when ever the subject arises.

[Beano]

I live in cambridgeshire and our house since the warm spell have been plagued by Jaspers I have been told they can bite and draw blood without one knowing. I have four very itchy bites which became swollen. I have used Anthisan cream and Cetirizine tablets which has cured the condition. Anyone else had this problem?

[Tenesmus]

Wasps don't bite, they sting. Their jaws are used to gather food. (People also say that ants sting - they don't, they bite and squirt formic acid which has a similar effect to a sting.) Jasper is used in Bristol and Somerset as well.

[Carl McBride]

Also at school wasps were known (still are?) as jaspers; Plymouth, Devon.

[anni]

Hi. I've lived in Kent most of my life and have always refered to wasps as jaspers

[PeterG]

I grew up in Essex.  We always used to call wasps 'jaspers' at school.

[spaldingg]

The French for wasp is gu�pe. The accent on the first 'e' indicates that there used to be an 's' immediately after the letter (another example is h�pital, which is French for hospital). So, if 'gu�pe' used to be 'guespe', my guess is that Jasper is just a corrupted form of the old, probably Norman, French word for wasp. A 'g' in French often turns into a 'w' in English - 'guerre' becomes 'war' and 'Guillaume' becomes 'William', so jasper and wasp are basically two versions of the same word which at some point went off down slightly different developmental paths.