How To Say “Cockroach” In Different Languages

Blog
12 September 2023
By Sarah Angela Almaden
Japanese House

Dinesh Valke

Where do roaches come from? I have no idea. I have yet to learn more about these insects. However, I just know that they start crawling the grounds at night because they are nocturnal creatures, which means they are more active when the moon is out and the stars are twinkling. When the sun is gloriously shining, they like to stay hidden. I guess you could say that during daylight hours, this band of really ancient creatures (that’s because these babies have been around since the Carboniferous era more than 280 million years ago) is getting its beauty sleep, away from the UV rays. But if you see two or more of them lounging somewhere during daytime, that might mean that these swift and very sensitive social insects are possibly nearing to cross the rainbow bridge. It’s sad. But it’s true.

The thing is, many of us are terribly fearful of roaches. Nothing’s wrong with that. But before many of us start chasing them away with the spraying, the screaming and the clanging, just remember this fun fact: only 30 out of the 4,000 of them living all around the different corners of the world (except Antarctica) are known as potential pests. And that there is also one cockroach species listed as endangered: the Gerlach’s cockroach.

  • English: cockroach (cock-rowtch)
  • Turkish: hamamböceği (ha-mam-botcheyi)
  • German: die Kakerlake (dee ka-ker-lah-keh)
  • Korean: 바퀴벌레 (bakwibeolle)
  • Japanese: ゴキブリ (gokiburi)
  • Indonesian: kecoa (ke-cho-ah)
  • Mandarin Chinese: 蟑螂 (zhāngláng)
  • Cantonese Chinese: 蟑螂 (zhāngláng)
  • French: le cafard (leh ca-fahr)
  • Dutch: de kakkerlak (de ka-ker-lak)
  • Norwegian: kakerlakk (ka-ker-lak)
  • Swedish: kackerlacka (ka-ker-la-ka)
  • Finnish: torakka (to-ra-ka)
  • Danish: kakerlak (ka-ker-lak)
  • Polish: karaluch (ka-ra-loohk)
  • Italian: lo scarafaggio (loh ska-ra-fa-jho)
  • Brazilian Portuguese: a barata (ah ba-ra-ta)
  • European Portuguese: a barata (ah ba-ra-ta)
  • Arabic: صَرْصُور (sarsur)
  • Hindi: तिलचट्टा (tila-chatta)
  • Icelandic: kakkalakki (ka-ka-lah-kee)
  • Spanish: la cucaracha (lah koo-ka-ra-cha)
  • Tagalog: ipis (ee-pis)