When was the word "bookworm" first used, by whom and why "worm"?

Question

I think this term might interest book lovers who're already obsessed with his/her reading for years till some people around know the famed habit and call him/her seriously or jokingly by the term.

The Team's informed me to extend for 4 more days for answers, thanks.

Answer 1

Dictionary.com dates the use of "bookworm" to 1590 and 1600 -- literacy and book ownership were becoming (more) common at this time. By the eighteenth century, Alexander Pope, a viciously witty English satirist, railed furiously against a class of writers who *gasp* wrote for a living (up until this time, writing was more or less a pleasure of the aristocracy, as literacy wasn't widespread enough to support a community of actual paid authors who targeted what we'd think of as a middle class). I imagine that "bookworm" was used pejoratively well before his time ... anyway, I digress.

Literally, a "bookworm" is a book-eating bug: "Any of various insects, especially booklice and silverfish, that infest books and feed on the paste in the bindings."

Answer 2

Well a bookworm lives in a book.Really a bookworm is an insect that is very destructive.When the term was first used to describe an avid reader is anyones guess.

Answer 3

The origin of the term comes from the insect whose larvae eat the paper or binding paste in books. It is unknown who first used the term to describe an avid reader.

Answer 4

It was first used to describe a type of worm or beetle larva that ate books. When it came to be applied to voracious readers I don't know.

http://www.djmcadam.com/bookworm.html

Answer 5

Don't know when or by whom, but I thought it had something to do with old books and that they used to get worms in them. I was told this as a child. I dunno, seems odd to me.

Answer 6

umberto Your big news here...
:)! http://www.osoq.com/funstuff/extra/extra02.asp?strName=umberto