Entry · Saturday, September 5, 2026
Vespa
/VES-puh/ n.- 1. An Italian motor scooter of compact wheelbase and disproportionately generous bodywork, characterized by a monocoque steel shell that curves outward from the legshield through the floorboard and rounds decisively at the rear cowl; built not for aerodynamic discretion but for a silhouette that lingers in the peripheral vision of every bicycle it parks beside.
- 2. colloq. Proof that Italian industrial design in 1946 looked at a wasp and thought: what if we kept the waist and let everything behind it do whatever it wanted.
"She parked her thiccc Vespa between two ten-speeds outside the boulangerie and the bicycles immediately appeared to be on a diet. The rear cowl held its ground like it had a permit."
From Italian vespa, meaning 'wasp,' applied by Enrico Piaggio in 1946 upon first viewing the prototype, reportedly because the narrow front fork and wide rear body suggested the insect's silhouette. He was describing a wasp. He was also, it turns out, describing something else entirely.
Filed by
Filed because Enrico Piaggio named it after a wasp and accidentally described the entire catalogue.
Ruling ADMITTED
The filing line did not need to be that smug. The rear cowl rounds decisively. The monocoque is steel. Admitted.
In the margin
The legshield curves out, the floorboard curves out, and then the rear cowl just fully commits and I think that is beautiful industrial honesty from 1946.