beetle [OE] The meaning of bitula, the source word for this creature, is ‘biter’, and it is closely related to *bite. The other word beetle [OE], ‘a heavy mallet’, is unrelated. It comes ultimately from the ancestor of beat, ‘to strike’. Beetle-browed [LME] means ‘having bushy eyebrows’. In Middle English brow was always an eyebrow and not the forehead.