Justfolk's photos with the keyword: 24724-031-aa

An odd word, that: syrphid. It looks like a word related to, say, syrup, perhaps referring to these guys' propensity for getting face and eyes into the sweet parts of flowers. But, no, it comes from the Greek, a word for gnat. Disappointing etymology. I've always been interested in etymology, and entomology too. As a young Linguistics student fifty-odd years ago, I was amused at the half-shelf of books on insects misfiled with books on word origins in our university library.