Waspageddon

A month ago I mentioned the evolution of compound words in Beekeeping game-changers. These are hybrid words derived from two separate words that morph, often via hyphenation, into a single word.

I didn't use honeybee as an example, as it should not be compounded {{1}}, neither did I use 'waspageddon', as it's more correctly a portmanteau word {{2}}.

Even more correctly, 'waspageddon' isn't a word at all, as I invented it 😉.

There's a long tradition of inventing hybrid words for humorous or dramatic effect. Several involve the words 'apocalypse' or 'Armageddon'; we've had Trumpocalypse (the title of at least two books I'm aware of), Obamageddon (first used in ~2011, also a book title) and Starmageddon (inevitably, although inevitably not originally, the Daily Mail) {{3}}.

Armageddon was the literal or symbolic place where the armies gathered for the battle at the end of the world, though it is now more generically used to indicate an 'end of the world' scenario.

And the wasps this year have been that bad … hence Waspageddon.

Let's segue gently from etymology to entomology and discuss the problems wasps cause, and some possible solutions to them.