abomasum

From New Latin abomāsum, from ab- (“away from”) + omāsum (“tripe of a bullock”).

melkpens

fourth or digestive stomach of a ruminant

(biology, food) The fourth digestive compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant, after the omasum;

The fourth digestive compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant, after the omasum;
the lining of said compartment, considered as a foodstuff.


mental

c. 1727, from Latin mentum (“the chin”) + -al.

Audio (US)

(zootomy) A plate or scale covering the mentum or chin of a fish or reptile.


head

en-noun

head (countable and uncountable, plural heads or head)

→ Japanese: ヘッド (heddo)

Sranan Tongo: ede

Aukan: ede

Saramaccan: hédi

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *kap-
Proto-Indo-European *káput-
Proto-Germanic *haubudą
Old English hēafod
Middle English heed
English head
From Middle English hed, heed, heved, heaved, from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; source, origin; chief, leader; capital”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput. The modern word comes from Old English oblique stem hēafd-, the expected Modern English outcome for hēafod would be *heaved (similar to the Middle English word). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, chef, chief, and Howth.
Cognate with Scots heid, hede, hevid, heved (“head”), Old English hafola (“head”), North Frisian hood (“head”), Dutch hoofd (“head”), German Haupt (“head”), Swedish huvud (“head”), Danish hoved (“head”), Icelandic höfuð (“head”), Latin caput (“head”), Sanskrit कपाल (kapāla, “skull”), Hindi कपाल (kapāl, “skull”).

頭

つぶり, tsuburi, つぃぶる, tsiburu, つぃぶるぃ, tsiburi

pää

principal operative part of a machine or tool

have one's head screwed on the right way

know one's head from a hole in the ground

run around like a chicken with its head cut off

would lose one's head if it wasn't attached

would lose one's head if it wasn't bolted on

would lose one's head if it wasn't glued on

would lose one's head if it wasn't screwed on

would lose one's head if it wasn't stuck on

would lose one's head if it wasn't tied on

would lose one's head if it weren't attached

you can't put an old head on young shoulders

you can't put a wise head on young shoulders

My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head:

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 100:


antler

From Middle English auntelere, hauntelere, from Old French antoillier (“antler, horn”), from ante- (“in front of”) + oillier (oil (“eye”) + -ier (a suffix indicating location)), possibly from an unattested Latin *anteocularis (“before the eye”).

While hiking in the woods, I found an antler from a deer.

A deciduous branching and bony structure on the head of deer, moose and elk, normally in pairs, grown and shed each year. (Compare with horn, which is generally not shed.)


wing

From Middle English winge, wenge, from Old Norse vængr ("wing of a flying animal, wing of a building"; compare vængi (“ship's cabin”)), from Proto-Germanic *wēingijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”), thus related to wind. Cognate with Danish vinge (“wing”), Swedish vinge (“wing”), Icelandic vængur (“wing”).
Replaced native Middle English fither (from Old English fiþre, from Proto-Germanic *fiþriją), which merged with Middle English fether (from Old English feþer, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō). More at feather.

gl

"wing of a flying animal, wing of a building"; compare <i class="Latn mention" lang="non">vængi</i> (“ship's cabin”)

der

They got bro-bro stuck on the wing, cah I picked up and bullet him

2021 July 18, “‘Woop’ Freestyle” (0:25 from the start), Trizz (lyrics):

(slang, MLE) Short for prison wing, a cellblock; or prison or doing time by extension.


festoon

A raised cable with light globes attached.

(technology) A specific style of electric light bulb consisting of a cylindrical enclosure with two points of contact on either end providing power to the filament or diode.

(manufacturing) Two sets of rollers used to create a buffer of material on web handling equipment.

(dentistry) Texturing applied to a denture to simulate human tissue.


pen

From Middle English penne, from Anglo-Norman penne, from Old French penne, from Latin penna (“feather”), from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ ~ pth₂én- (“feather, wing”), from *peth₂- (“to rush, fly”) (from which petition). Proto-Indo-European base also root of *petra-, from which Ancient Greek πτερόν (pterón, “wing”) (whence pterodactyl), Sanskrit पत्रम् (patram, “wing, feather”), Old Church Slavonic перо (pero, “pen”), Old Norse fjǫðr, Old English feðer (Modern English feather); note the /p/ → /f/ Germanic sound change.
Doublet of panne, penna, and pinna. See feather and πέτομαι (pétomai) for more.

cog

you don't dip your pen in the company inkwell

you don't dip your pen in the company's ink

A pen is nothing more complex than a decalcified shell, so one mutation of the genes that controlled calcification could be all it took.

2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 117:

(zoology) The internal cartilage skeleton of a squid, shaped like a pen.

"I'm sure she had more than one EpiPen […]" "But she didn't have one when she got stung or she'd have used it." By all appearances, Mariah died in the woods, […] If she managed to grab the pen found under her leg from her bag or pocket, she never discharged it. But Crystal doesn't have these details. "Doesn't it make sense that she kept an extra pen in her cupboard, and one in her bag? The extra pen fell out, is all."

2023 August 29, Geri Krotow, A Wasp in the Woods, Tule Publishing, →ISBN:

A syringe-like device for injecting a dose of medication such as insulin or epinephrine. (See Injector pen.)

a dab pen; a wax pen

Short for vapor pen (“electronic cigarette”).


leg

→ Finnish: legi

→ Hungarian: leg

From Middle English leg, legge, from Old Norse leggr (“leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”) (see it for more).
Cognate with Scots leg (“leg”), Icelandic leggur (“leg, limb”), Norwegian Bokmål legg (“leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk legg (“leg”), Swedish lägg (“leg, shank, shaft”), Danish læg (“leg”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh, shank, leg”), Latin lacertus (“limb, arm”), Persian لنگ (leng). Upon borrowing, mostly displaced the native Old English term sċanca (Modern English shank).

der

piss on someone's leg and tell them it's raining

This proposal has no legs. Almost everyone opposes it.

I’m trying to go with my head and focus on the first guy, because this could be a relationship with legs.

2020 February 2, “One is a great guy; the other is good in bed. So who do I choose?”, in The Guardian:

(usually in the plural) The ability of something to persist or succeed over a long period of time.


foot

en-noun

foot (plural feet or (UK colloquial, unit of measure) foot)

→ Assamese: ফুট (phut)

q

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">feet</i>

→ Japanese: フット (futto), フート (fūto); フィート (fīto) (from feet)

→ Russian: фут (fut)

Sranan Tongo: futu

Aukan: futu

Saramaccan: fútu

→ Swahili: futi

→ Thai: ฟุต (fút)

Tok Pisin: fut, put

→ Urdu: فٹ (fuṭ)

→ Phalura: fuṭ

From Middle English fot, fote, foot, from Old English fōt, from Proto-West Germanic *fōt, from Proto-Germanic *fōts, from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds. Doublet of pes, pie (“Spanish unit of length”), and pous.

doublet

not touch something with a ten-foot pole

you cannot put the same shoe on every foot

King John went to battle with ten thousand foot and one thousand horse.

His forces, after all the high discourses, amounted really but to eighteen hundred foot.

1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:

(collective, military) Foot soldiers; infantry.

(cigars) The end of a cigar which is lit, and usually cut before lighting.


bible

From Middle English bible, from Middle Latin biblia (“book”) (misinterpreted as a feminine from earlier Latin neuter plural biblia (“books”)), from Ancient Greek βιβλία (biblía, “books”), plural of βιβλίον (biblíon, “small book”), originally a diminutive of βίβλος (bíblos, “book”), from βύβλος (búblos, “papyrus”) (from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported this writing material).
Old English used biblioþēce (from βιβλιοθήκη) and ġewritu (> English writs) for "the Scriptures".

Omasum, the third compartment of the stomach of ruminants


gyre

Borrowed from Latin gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle; ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend; to curve”). The English word is a doublet of gyro and gyrus.

der

(anatomy, zootomy, archaic) Synonym of gyrus (“a fold or ridge on the cerebral cortex of the brain”)


udder

From Middle English udder, uddyr (also as uther, iddyr), from Old English ūder (“udder; breast”), from Proto-Germanic *ūdarą, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ówHdʰr̥ (“udder”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Jadder (“udder”), Dutch uier (“udder”), German Euter (“udder”), Swedish juver (“udder”), Icelandic júgur (“udder”), Vedic Sanskrit ऊधर् (ū́dhar), Ancient Greek οὖθαρ (oûthar), Latin ūber.

Meronym: teat

squeeze the udder to get milk

An organ formed of the mammary glands of female quadruped mammals, particularly ruminants such as cattle, goats, sheep and deer.


acetabulum

en-noun

acetabulum (plural acetabulums or acetabula)

Learned borrowing from Latin acētābulum (“vinegar saucer, 1/48 congius”), from acētum (“vinegar”) + -bulum (“-bule: a vessel for”).

lbor

(zootomy) The cavity in which the leg of an insect is inserted at its articulation with the body.

acetàbul

(zootomy) A sucker of the sepia or cuttlefish and related animals.

(zootomy) The large posterior sucker of the leeches.

(zootomy) One of the lobes of the placenta in ruminating animals.


bill

→ Swahili: bili

→ Thai: บิล (bin)

→ Tokelauan: pili

→ Jamaican Creole: bills

From Middle English bille, from Anglo-Norman bille, from Old French bulle, from Medieval Latin bulla (“seal", "sealed document”). Compare bull.

der

l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand

Ay, and Rato-lorum too; and a gentleman born, Master Parson; who writes himself Armigero, in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, Armigero.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 8:

A writing binding the signer or signers to pay a certain sum at a future day or on demand, with or without interest, as may be stated in the document; a bill of exchange. In the United States, it is usually called a note, a note of hand, or a promissory note.


lore

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

lure (some accents with the horse–hoarse merger)

He’s sticky and encrusted on one side below his beak and amongst the lores around his eyes by the pips and juices he has dined upon, the pith and pulp of feeding.

2022, Jim Crace, eden, Picador, page 40:

(anatomy) The region between the eyes and nostrils of birds, reptiles, and amphibians.


sagitta

en-noun

sagitta (plural sagittas or (arrowworm) sagittae)

/səˈd͡ʒɪt.ə/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sagitta.wav

Borrowing from Latin sagitta (“an arrow, shaft, bolt”).

(zootomy) The larger of the two otoliths, or earbones, found in most fishes.


trunk

From Middle English tronke, trunke, from Old French tronc (“alms box, tree trunk, headless body”), from Latin truncus (“a stock, lopped tree trunk”), from truncus (“cut off, maimed, mutilated”). For the verb, compare French tronquer, and see truncate. Doublet of truncus and tronk.

der

the apple does not fall far from the trunk

(in the plural) Short for swimming trunks.


trunk

en-verb

trunk (third-person singular simple present trunks, present participle trunking, simple past and past participle trunked)

trunks (present singular third-person)
trunking (participle present)
trunked (participle past)
trunked (past)

Large streames of bloud out of the truncked stocke / Forth gushed, like fresh water streame from riuen rocke.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10:

(transitive, obsolete) To lop off; to curtail; to truncate.


membrane

Late Middle English, borrowed from Latin membrāna (“skin or membrane that covers parts of the body”), from membrum (“a limb or member of the body”) + -āna. Doublet of membrana.

af

(anatomy, zootomy) A flexible enclosing or separating tissue forming a plane or film and separating two environments.

A mechanical, thin, flat flexible part that can deform or vibrate when excited by an external force.

A flexible or semiflexible covering or waterproofing whose primary function is to exclude water.

(biology) A microscopic double layer of lipids and proteins forming the boundary of cells or organelles.


knot

From Middle English knotte, from Old English cnotta, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô, *knudô (“knot”); probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”).
See also Old High German knoto (German Knoten, Dutch knot, Low German Knütte; also Old Norse knútr > Danish knude, Swedish knut, Norwegian knute, Faroese knútur, Icelandic hnútur; also Latin nōdus and its Romance descendants. Doublet of knout, node, and nodus.
* (unit of speed): From the practice of counting the number of knots in the log-line (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every ¹⁄₁₂₀ of a mile.

In the early stages of reentry, due to the extremely-rarefied air at these altitudes, the space shuttle flew at only one to a few knots equivalent airspeed, even when its actual speed was many thousands of knots.

(aviation) A unit of indicated airspeed, calibrated airspeed, or equivalent airspeed, which varies in its relation to the unit of speed so as to compensate for the effects of different ambient atmospheric conditions on aircraft performance.


genu

PIE word
 *ǵónu
Borrowed from Latin genu (“knee”).

A knee-like structure, in particular a bend in the corpus callosum of mammals.


gizzard

From Middle English gyser, geser, from Old French gesier, giser et al. (French gésier), from Latin gigēria.

As fortune has it, kingbirds, like owls, lack a grinding gizzard and regurgitate hard fragments from their meals.

2016, Justin O. Schmidt, The Sting of the Wild, Johns Hopkins University Press,, →ISBN, page 29:

A specialized organ constructed of thick muscular walls found in the digestive tract of some animals, including archosaurs (including crocodilians and birds), earthworms, some gastropods, some fish, and some crustaceans, and used for grinding up food, often aided by particles of stone or grit.

قَانِصَة

portion of the esophagus with ingested grit


crop

From Middle English crop, croppe, from Old English crop, cropp, croppa (“the head or top of a plant, a sprout or herb, a bunch or cluster of flowers, an ear of corn, the craw of a bird, a kidney”), from Proto-West Germanic *kropp, from Proto-Germanic *kruppaz (“body, trunk, crop”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to warp, bend, crawl”).
Cognates
Cognate with Dutch krop (“crop”), German Low German Kropp (“a swelling on the neck, the craw, maw”), German Kropf (“the craw, ear of grain, head of lettuce or cabbage”), Swedish kropp (“body, trunk”), Icelandic kroppur (“a hunch on the body”). Related to crap, doublet of group and croup.


carapace

Borrowed from French carapace (“tortoise shell”), from Spanish carapacho, of unknown origin, but likely from an extinct Ibero-Mediterranean substrate language.
Compare Catalan carabassa, Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos, “beetle”), Latin scarabaeus (the source of scarab); also Spanish galápago (“kind of turtle”). Doublet of calipash.

So, little by little, youth loosens the hard carapace of confining custom their elders have built over the human heart.

1928, Edward A. Ross, World Drift, New York, London: The Century Co., page 12:

This is all a massive failure of science to pierce the carapace of public ignorance.

2010 January 8, Simon Jenkins, “The proliferation of nuclear panic is politics at its most ghoulish”, in The Guardian, §: “Comment & Debate”, page 29, column 4:


vagina

en-noun

vagina (plural vaginas or vaginae or (obsolete) vaginæ)

vaginas (plural)
vaginae (plural)
vaginæ (obsolete plural)

Learned borrowing from Latin vāgīna (“a sheath, scabbard; a covering, sheath, holder”).

lbor

زهگیر sg (zehgir, literally “semen-gatherer”)

urogenital sinus - embryological precursors

(anatomy) A sex organ leading from the vulval vestibule/urogenital sinus to the cervix of the uterus for copulation and birth in female therian mammals.

(zootomy) A similar part in some invertebrates and non-mammalian amniotes.


jugular

/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.jʊl.ə/

/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.jəl.ɚ/

/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.əl.ɚ/

Late 16th century borrowing from Late Latin jugulāris, from jugulum (“the collarbone; the hollow part of the neck above the collarbone; the throat”) + -āris (“-ar, -ary”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to jugulum + -ar.

af

(zootomy, of fish) Having ventral fins attached under the throat.


beak

en-noun

beak (countable and uncountable, plural beaks)

From Middle English bec, borrowed from Anglo-Norman bec, Old French bec, from Latin beccus, from Gaulish *bekkos, from Proto-Celtic *bekkos (“beak, snout”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bak-, *baḱ- (“pointed stick, peg”). Cognate with Breton beg (“beak”). Compare Saterland Frisian Bäk (“mouth; muzzle; beak”); Dutch bek (“beak; bill; neb”).

cog

Shut your beak!

'Did you think that bloody question up by yourself, pal?' Seánie snapped, and the guy opened and closed his beak a few times — I suppose he must have been surprised that a priest would talk like that.

1998, Joseph O'Connor, The Salesman, London: Secker & Warburg, →ISBN, page 43:

Typical Yankee detractor, nize your beak.

2020 October 19, u/southsidejane, “How do we stop the violence in the city (Serious Answers only ) how do we make the different hoods in Toronto make amends and squash the beef.”, in Reddit, r/Torontology, archived from the original on 2024-01-08:

(slang)
(especially MTE) A person's mouth.


keel

Probably from Scottish Gaelic cìl (“ruddle”).


dock

en-noun

dock (countable and uncountable, plural docks)

From Middle English dokke, from Old English docce, from Proto-West Germanic *dokkā, from Proto-Germanic *dukkǭ (compare Old Danish dokke (“water-dock”), West Flemish dokke, dokkebladeren (“coltsfoot, butterbur”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“dark”) (compare Latvian duga (“scum, slime on water”)).

And vnder neath him his courageous ſteed, / The fierce Spumador trode them downe like docks […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 352:

Any of the genus Rumex of coarse weedy plants with small green flowers related to buckwheat, especially bitter dock (Rumex obtusifolius), and used as potherbs and in folk medicine, especially in curing nettle rash.


dock

From early modern English "area of mud in which a ship can rest at low tide, dock", borrowed from Dutch dok (“dock”) or Middle Low German docke (“dock, ship's dock”), both from Middle Dutch docke (“port, harbour, roadstead”), of uncertain origin. The original sense may have been "the furrow a grounded vessel makes in a mud bank". Compare modern Dutch dok, modern German Low German Dock, West Frisian dok, German Dock, Danish dok, Swedish docka.
Some sources link this word to an unattested Middle Dutch *docke (“watercourse, trench, canal”), which is a ghost word, only being inferred from Mediaeval Latin documents in the form of ducta, doctus, doccia (“conduit, canal”). However, if this theory is correct, then it would relate the word to Italian doccia (“drainpipe”), making dock a doublet of douche and duct.
An alternative theory ties Middle Dutch docke to a North Germanic/Scandinavian source, notably Old Norse dǫkk (“depression in the landscape, pit, pool, trench”), related to Norwegian dokk (“hollow, low ground”), Old Icelandic dökk, dökð (“pit, pool”), Swedish dank (“marshy ground”). If so, this would make dock a doublet of dank.

der

(electronics) A device designed as a base for holding a connected portable appliance such as a laptop computer (in this case, referred to as a docking station), or a mobile telephone, for providing the necessary electrical charge for its autonomy, or as a hardware extension for additional capabilities.


costa

Unadapted borrowing from Latin costa (“a rib”). Doublet of coast.

ubor

(botany, zootomy) A riblike part of a plant or animal, such as a midrib of a leaf or a thickened vein or the margin of an insect wing.

(entomology) The vein forming the leading edge of most insect wings.


flapper

In this case, slide the collar of the flapper over the overflow tube until it seats against the bottom of the flush valve.

2004, David Day, Albert Jackson, Popular Mechanics Complete Home How-to, page 356:


stocking

→ Scottish Gaelic: stocainn

From stock (“cover with material”) + -ing. Corruption of old plural -en, i.e. stocken, now singular.

a pair of stockings

(footwear) A soft garment, usually knit or woven, worn on the foot and lower leg under shoes or other footwear.

çorape

garment (for translations of "sock", see sock)

A large, sock-like bag used to store small Christmas gifts, typically hung on a mantelpiece.

A knitted hood of cotton thread which is eventually converted by a special process into an incandescent mantle for gas lighting.


rack

From Middle English rakke, rekke, from Middle Dutch rac, recke, rec (Dutch rek), see rekken.

rappel rack

abseil rack

(climbing, caving) A friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with five or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded.

I used almost a full rack on the second pitch.

(climbing, slang) A climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, carabiners, nuts, Friends, etc.


temporal

From Middle English, from Middle French timporal, temporal, from Late Latin temporālis, from tempora (“the temples of the head”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of temporalis.

af

(zootomy) Any of a reptile's scales on the side of the head between the parietal and supralabial scales, and behind the postocular scales.


pennon

Inherited from Middle English penoun, pennon, from Anglo-Norman penun, penoun, from Old French penne (“feather”) + -on (diminutive suffix).

Her yellow lockes crisped, like golden wyre,
About her shoulders weren loosely shed,
And when the winde emongst them did inspyre,
They waued like a penon wyde dispred
And low behinde her backe were scattered:

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 227:

Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur:

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

[…] in spite of a sort of screen intended to protect them from the wind, the flame of the torches streamed sideways into the air, like the unfurled pennon of a chieftain.

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter VII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 103:

Precisely in the middle of the quadrangle were placed perpendicularly in the ground, a hundred or more slender, fresh-cut poles, stripped of their bark, and decorated at the end with a floating pennon of white tappa;

1846, Herman Melville, Typee, New York: Wiley and Putnam, Part 1, Chapter 23, p. 214:

1863, Christina Rossetti, “A Royal Princess” in Isa Craig (ed.), An Offering to Lancashire, London: Emily Faithfull, p. 3,
Vassal counts and princes follow where his pennon goes,

Nearly all the Norman spears were embellished with pennons of from two to five points.

1909, Charles Henry Ashdown, chapter 5, in British and Foreign Arms and Armour, London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, pages 65–66:

In 1821 the hobby-horse could have a real mane and a pretty topknot of wire, pennons and bells but with no wheels at the back.

1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 69:

A thin, often triangular flag or streamer, especially as hung from the end of a lance or spear.


nasal

From Middle English, from Medieval Latin nāsālis, from nāsus (“the nose”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of nasalis.

(zootomy) A plate, or scale, on the nose of a fish, etc.


spine

From late Middle English spyne, from Old French espine (French épine) or its source, Latin spīna (“a thorn; a prickle, spine; the backbone”). Doublet of spina.

der

If you attentively regard almost any quadruped's spine, you will be struck with the resemblance of its vertebrae to a strung necklace of dwarfed skulls.

1851, Herman Melville, chapter 80, in Moby-Dick:

The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 266:

(anatomy, zootomy) A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human, or from the head to the tail of an animal, enclosing the spinal cord and providing support for the thorax and abdomen.

Trademark Owners will nevertheless try to dictate how their marks are to be represented, but dictionary publishers with spine can resist such pressure.

2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 409:

रीढ़ की हड्डी

rīṛh kī haḍḍī

رِیڑھ کی ہَڈّی

rīṛh kī haḍḍī

The male, as Dr. Gunther informs me, has a cluster of stiff, straight spines, like those of a comb, on the sides of the tail.

1871, Charles Darwin, “chapter 12”, in Descent of Man, page 331:

(zootomy, botany) A pointed, fairly rigid protuberance or needlelike structure on an animal, shell, or plant.

espina

rigid, pointed surface protuberance or needle-like structure


lateral

en-adj

lateral (comparative more lateral, superlative most lateral)

more lateral (comparative)
most lateral (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin laterālis (“belonging to the side”), from latus (“the side or flank”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

af

The medial side of the knee faces the other knee, while the outer side of the knee is lateral.

A fish senses changes in hydrodynamic pressure with its lateral line.

To the side; of or pertaining to the side.

(anatomy, zootomy) Situated on one side or other of the body or of an organ, especially in the region furthest from the median plane.


juke

From Gullah juke, jook, joog (“wicked, disorderly”) (compare Wolof and Bambara dzug (“unsavory”)).

The juke played five times for a quarter and she never wearied of tapping. Nor did she tire of the same record five times in a row; she was too indolent to select more than one number.

2011, Nelson Algren, Never Come Morning:


medial

en-adj

medial (comparative more medial, superlative most medial)

more medial (comparative)
most medial (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-medial.wav

Borrowed from Latin mediālis (“middle”), from medius (“that is in the middle or midst”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

среден

Situated in or near the middle; not at either end.

(anatomy, zootomy) Pertaining to the inside; closer to the median plane of the body or the midline of an organ.


maw

From Middle English mawe, maghe, maȝe, from Old English maga (“stomach; maw”), from Proto-West Germanic *magō, from Proto-Germanic *magô (“belly; stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *mak-, *maks- (“bag, bellows, belly”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian mage, Dutch maag (“stomach; belly”), German Low German Maag, German Magen (“stomach”), Danish mave,
Norwegian mage (“stomach”), Swedish mage (“stomach; belly”), and also with Welsh megin (“bellows”), archaic Russian мошна́ (mošná, “pocket, bag”), Lithuanian mãkas (“purse”), Finnish maha (“stomach”), Estonian magu (“stomach”).

Shut your maw!

She fumbled with her bag, and produced from its little maw a scented handkerchief.

1920, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Escape”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 273:


pleura

From Middle English, borrowed from Medieval Latin pleura.

(zootomy) A lateral part in an animal body or structure.


hock

en-noun

hock (countable and uncountable, plural hocks)

That night he strolled into the Palette Club about eleven o’clock, and found Trevor sitting by himself in the smoking-room drinking hock and seltzer.

1891 [1887], Oscar Wilde, “The Model Millionaire”, in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories:

The dinner that they sat down to in the fly-specked dining-room was of boiled beef and carrots, with a turgid ginger pudding to follow, though Grierson went down to the cellar himself and found some dusty bottles of hock, overlooked for years because there was no demand for it in a beer-drinking community.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 158:

A Rhenish wine, of a light yellow color, either sparkling or still, from the Hochheim region; often applied to all Rhenish wines.


hock

en-verb

hock (third-person singular simple present hocks, present participle hocking, simple past and past participle hocked)

hocks (present singular third-person)
hocking (participle present)
hocked (participle past)
hocked (past)

From Middle English hough, hoche, hokke, from Old English hōh, from Proto-Germanic *hanhaz (compare West Frisian hakke, Dutch hak, German Low German Hacke, Hack (“heel”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kenk- (compare Lithuanian kìnka (“leg, thigh, knee-cap”), kenklė̃ (“knee-cap”), Sanskrit कङ्काल (kaṅkāla, “skeleton”)).

cog

(transitive) To disable by cutting the tendons of the hock; to hamstring; to hough.


hock

Coordinate term: soda

(card games) The last card turned up in the game of faro.


milt

en-noun

milt (countable and uncountable, plural milts)

From Middle English milte, from Old English milte, milt (“milt, spleen”), from Proto-West Germanic *miltijā, *meltā, from Proto-Germanic *meltǭ (“spleen”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“to beat, grind, crush, weaken”). Cognate with German Milz, Dutch milt, Danish milt, Norwegian milt, Swedish mjälte. Outside Germanic, with Albanian mëlçi (“liver”) and Italian milza (“spleen”), which is a borrowing from Lombardic.

inh

we see that certaine apprehensions engender a blushing-red colour, others a palenesse; that some imagination doth only worke in the milt, another in the braine[…].

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

Adam Kadmon had pneumonia. Friar Goat cured it by tying a bullock’s milt to the soles of the lad’s feet, and burying the milt afterwards. Adam Kadmon immediately contracted the thrush.

(countable) The spleen, especially of an animal bred for food.

The engorged testis containing a filled reservoir of mature spermatozoa in a male fish


labial

Borrowing from Medieval Latin labiālis (“of or pertaining to the lips”), from labium (“a lip”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to labium + -al.

af

The wound that does not kill Christ is the magical labial wound; it is the seal of the resurrection and an expression of the myth of eternal recurrence.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 109:

(anatomy, zootomy) Of or pertaining to the lips or labia.


labial

(zootomy) Any of the scales bordering the mouth opening of a reptile.


grail

From Middle English graal, greal, from Old French graal, greal (“cup”), from Medieval Latin gradalis, possibly corrupted over time from Latin crater (“bowl”).

The quest for the Grail is not archeology. It's a race against evil. If it is captured by the Nazis, the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth. Do you understand me?

1989, 1:06:54 from the start, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade^(https://archive.org/details/movie-hollywood-720p-sub-indonesia_202209/Indiana+Jones+and+the+Last+Crusade+(1989)+BR/Indiana+Jones+and+the+Last+Crusade.mp4) (Action-Adventure), spoken by Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), →OCLC:


flap

From Middle English flap, flappe (“a slap; blow; buffet; fly-flap; something flexible or loose; flap”), related to Saterland Frisian Flappert (“wing, flipper”), Middle Dutch flabbe (“a blow; slap on the face; fly-flap; flap”) (modern Dutch flap (“flap”)), Middle Low German flabbe, vlabbe, flebbe, from the verb (see below). Related also to English flab and flabby.

cog

a flap of a garment

The envelope flap seemed curiously wrinkled.

Again, Beside these parts destin'd to divers offices, there is a peculiar provision for the wind-pipe, that is, a cartilagineous flap upon the opening of the Larynx or Throttle, which hath an open cavity for the admiffion of the air

1686, Sir Thomas Browne, chapter VIII, in The Works of the Learned Sr. Thomas Brown: Containing, Enquiries Into Vulgar and Common Errors, etc, book IV:

The hairs guide the pollinating insect to the base of the petal, where there is a purplish nectary covered by a flap of tissue.

1998 October, Robert H. Mohlenbrock, “Twin Peaks”, in Natural History, volume 107, number 8, page 73:

Anything broad and flexible that hangs loose, or that is attached by one side or end and is easily moved.

(aviation) A hinged surface on the trailing edge of the wings of an aeroplane, used to increase lift and drag.

(surgery) A piece of tissue incompletely detached from the body, as an intermediate stage of plastic surgery.

(slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) The labia, the vulva.

(graph theory) A connected component of the induced subgraph formed by deleting a set of vertices.


girdle

From Middle English girdel, gerdel, gurdel, from Old English gyrdel, from Proto-West Germanic *gurdil, from Proto-Germanic *gurdilaz (“girdle, belt”), equivalent to gird + -le.
cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gäddel (“belt”), West Frisian gurdle, gurle, gurl (“belt”), Dutch gordel (“belt”), German Gürtel (“belt”), Yiddish גאַרטל (gartl, “belt”) (whence gartel, a doublet of girdle), Swedish gördel (“girdle”), Icelandic gyrðill (“girdle”).

inh

Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, prologue]:

That which girds, encircles, or encloses; a circumference

A garment used to hold the abdomen, hips, buttocks, and/or thighs in a particular shape.

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight

The line of greatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting.

rondist

line of greatest circumference of a diamond


girdle

(Scotland, Northern English) Alternative form of griddle


neb

From Middle English neb, from Old English nebb (“beak, nose, face”), from Proto-Germanic *nabją (“beak, nose”). Cognate with Danish næb, Dutch neb, German Schnabel, Old Norse nef, Swedish näbb, Swedish regional näv.

(now dialectal) The nose or snout of an animal, now especially of a fish.

In Acorns the nebb dilating splitteth the two sides, which sometimes lye whole, when the Oak is sproated two handfuls.

1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 183:

(now dialectal) A projecting extremity; a point or sharp projection.


souse

First appeared online during the Bush administration.

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(US, Internet slang) Pronunciation spelling of source.


track

→ Kashubian: trak (Canada)

From Middle English trak, tracke, from Old French trac (“track of horses, trail, trace”), of uncertain origin. Likely from a Germanic source, either Old Norse traðk ("a track; path; trodden spot"; > Icelandic traðk (“a track; path; tread”), Faroese traðk (“track; tracks”), Norwegian tråkke (“to trample”)) or from Middle Dutch trec, *trac, treck ("line, row, series"; > Dutch trek (“a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition”)), German Low German Treck (“a draught; movement; passage; flow”). See tread, trek.

gloss

"line, row, series"; > Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">trek</i> (“a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition”)

cog

Follow the track for a hundred metres.

caterpillar track
caterpillar track#English

(automotive) Short for caterpillar track.


shell

From Middle English schelle, from Old English sċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *skallju, from Proto-Germanic *skaljō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cleave”).
Compare West Frisian skyl (“peel, rind”), Dutch schil (“peel, skin, rink”), Low German Schell (“shell, scale”), Irish scelec (“pebble”), Latin silex (“pebble, flint”), siliqua (“pod”), Old Church Slavonic сколика (skolika, “shell”). More at shale.
Doublet of sheal.
* (computing): From being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the operating-system internals.

cog

A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory.

(business) A legal entity that has no operations.

skořápka

business: legal entity that has no operations


paddle

en-noun

paddle (countable and uncountable, plural paddles)

→ Danish: paddel, padle

Partly from the verb paddle ("to splash, dabble"; see below) and partly from Middle English padell (“small spade”).
Middle English padell is from Medieval Latin padela, itself of uncertain origin: perhaps an alteration of Middle English *spaddle (see also spaddle), a diminutive of spade; or from Latin patella (“pan, plate”), the diminutive of patina, or a merger of the two. Compare Ancient Greek πηδάλιον (pēdálion, “rudder, steering oar”), derived from πηδός (pēdós, “the blade of an oar; an oar”).

cog

A sea turtle's paddles make it swim almost as fast as land tortoises are slow.

A flat limb of an aquatic animal, adapted for swimming.


paddle

en-verb

paddle (third-person singular simple present paddles, present participle paddling, simple past and past participle paddled)

paddles (present singular third-person)
paddling (participle present)
paddled (participle past)
paddled (past)


chine

From Middle English chyne, from Old French eschine, from Frankish *skinu, from Proto-Germanic *skinō. Doublet of shin.

A piece of the backbone of an animal, with the adjoining parts, cut for cooking.

(nautical) A sharp angle in the cross section of a hull.

The edge or rim of a cask, etc., formed by the projecting ends of the staves; the chamfered end of a stave.


chine

chine (third-person singular simple present chines, present participle chining, simple past and past participle chined)

chines (present singular third-person)
chining (participle present)
chined (participle past)
chined (past)

(transitive) To cut through the backbone of; to cut into chine pieces.


pomace

en-noun

pomace (countable and uncountable, plural pomaces)

[Alt: Red grape flesh and seeds]
From Late Middle English pomis, pomys (“cider; pulp of plants pressed to extract their juice or oil”), probably from Medieval Latin pōmācium, pōmātium (“cider”), possibly a variant of pomaceum (although first attested later), from Latin pōmum (“fruit; fruit tree”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“away; off”) + *h₁em- (“to take”), in the sense of something taken off a tree) + -āceum (neuter form of -āceus (suffix meaning ‘belonging to; having the nature of’, forming adjectives)). Doublet of pomade, pomate, and pomatum.
Sense 1.1 (“crushed apples”) and sense 1.2 (“residue from grapes”) were possibly influenced by Middle French pommage (“(cidermaking) apple harvest; apple orchards”) and French poma, pomas, pomat (“residue from apples”) (Northern France).

bërsi

Sovv, as yet, Pomace of Cider-preſſings to raiſe Nurſeries; and ſet all ſorts of Kernels, Stones, &c.

1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Kalendarium Hortense: Or, The Gard’ners Almanac; […] [December.]”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 80:

Next to the VVhite is the Black Thorne and the Crab, vvhich make a very good Fence, and is raiſed as the VVhite Thorne, only if you ſovv the Pummace vvith them, they vvill come up the firſt Year.

1708, J[ohn] Mortimer, “Of Inclosing of Land”, in The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC, book I, page 3:

The pulp or pulplike matter remaining from a substance pressed to extract its juice or oil.

(historical) Such residue (especially castor bean cake or fish scrap) used as fertilizer.


pedicel

From Late Latin pedīcellus, diminutive of pedīculus (“foot-stalk or pedicle of a fruit or leaf”), diminutive of pēs (“foot”).

(anatomy) A stalk-shaped body part; an anatomical part that resembles a stem or stalk.


hood

From Middle English hood, hod, from Old English hōd, from Proto-Germanic *hōdaz (cognate with Saterland Frisian Houd, West Frisian/Dutch hoed, German Low German Hood, German Hut). Cognate with Proto-Iranian *xawdaH (“hat”) (compare Avestan 𐬑𐬂𐬛𐬀 (xåda), Old Persian 𐎧𐎢𐎭 (x-u-d /xaudā/)), from Proto-Indo-European *kadʰ- (“to cover”). More at hat.

kapuç

covering for the head attached to a larger garment such as a jacket or cloak

(ophiology) An expansion on the sides of the neck typical for many elapids e.g. the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje) and Indian cobra (Naja naja).

huppu

expansion on the sides of the neck typical for many elapids e.g. the Egyptian cobra and Indian cobra

Platysma myoides […] which sends attenuated fibres and slips to the gular region of the hood and is lost dorsad in the fascia covering the trapezius but acquires thickness over the sternum and cervix. Thyromandibularis […] Two distinct muscles may bear this name, an externus and an internus. The latter rises by two slips from about the middle of the inner surface of the mandible and is inserted into the middle of the inner side of the thyrohyal. The greatly elongated thyrobyal passes between the two layers of integument constituting the hood, at its middle fold, and so forms a “yard” to which the lower half of the hood is bent. This inner division of the Thyromandibularis being an adductor of the bone, is the chief agent in lowering the hood and bracing its lower moiety to the side of the neck—it is antagonised by the greater part of the outer division which rises fleshy immediately behind the inner one, but nearly on the lower edge of the jaw, the origin of the mylohyoideus being between them. It immediately divides into two superposed fascicles, the deeper one being inserted into the lower surface of the thyrohyal, a little behind the insertion of the inner division—the other sub division is inserted posteriorly to the former one into the outer side of the bone for the rest of its length and acting thus advantageously is an efficient erector of the lower part of the hood.

1883, Charles W. De Vis, “Myology of Chlamydosaurus kingii”, in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, volume 8, pages 301–302:

(colloquial) The osseous or cartilaginous marginal extension behind the back of many a dinosaur such as a ceratopsid and reptiles such as Chlamydosaurus kingii.

huppu

In the human hand, over the extensor digitorum, an expansion of the extensor tendon over the metacarpophalangeal joint (the extensor hood syn. dorsal hood syn. lateral hood)

(colloquial) The prepuce; the foreskin or clitoral hood.


larynx

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-larynx.wav

Borrowed from New Latin larynx, from Ancient Greek λᾰ́ρῠγξ (lárunx, “larynx; windpipe; gullet, throat”).

bor

Meronyms: epilarynx, hypolarynx, orolarynx

There is one thing, among abundance of others, in Anatomy, which has always much affected me with Admiration, [...] It is the Situation and Elaſticity of the Epiglottis, a ſoft Cartilaginous Cover to the Larynx, or Orifice of the Wind-pipe; that this Epiglottis ſhould, all a Man's life, be drawn up, for the Benefit of Reſpiration, and fall down and ſhut, whilſt every bit we eat, and every drop we drink, paſſes over it into the Gullet and Stomach; and that we ſhould ſo ſeldom have Occaſion to cough up a crum, or drop, that may accidentaly ſlip into the Larynx; [...]

1727, Walter Harris, “Section II. Of the Wonderful Works of God.”, in The Great and Wonderful Works of God Humbly Represented: And the Just and Equal Distributions of Providence Demonstrated. […], London: James Roberts […], →OCLC, pages 29–30:

The larynx is the instrument of the voice, of which the rima glottidis is the immediate organ. [...] The change of the voice from acute to grave at the time of puberty, when the larynx undergoes a remarkable development, as well as its acuteness in females, whose glottis is less by one third than that of man, shew that the size of the aperture has a great influence.

1809, William Nicholson, “PHYSIOLOGY”, in The British Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […], volume V (N … R), London: Printed by C[harles] Whittingham, […]; for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC:

The differences in the voices of man and woman cannot but have been always obſerved; and their larynxes exhibit, on a merely ſuperficial inſpection, a great diſproportion in ſize.

1819, Abraham Rees, “LARYNX”, in The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature. [...] In Thirty-nine Volumes, volume XX, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, […] [et al.], →OCLC, column 1:

I hope to be understood as not implying that there is no peculiarity of the larynges and tracheæ, except in some genera; for I believe all have the admirable mechanism of the organ of voice differently constructed, with corresponding muscles, and distribution of nerves, producing those various modulations of sound so familiar to us, and destined for the excitement of love, as well as for other purposes.

1830 March 16, Joshua Brookes, “XXIX. On the Remarkable Formation of the Trachea In the Egyptian Tantalus”, in The Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, volume XVI, London: Richard Taylor, […]; Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, […]; William Wood, […], published 1833, →OCLC, page 502:

The work on larynx transplantation has been discussed in the previous paragraphs. Corollary to this is the possible development of an artificial larynx which can be implanted just as an artificial heart might be implanted. Design of such larynxes might permit a quick solution to the problem of tissue rejection.

1968 April 25, John E. Bordley (witness), Departments of Labor, and Health, Education, and Welfare Appropriations for 1969: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, Second Session: […], part 7 (Members of Congress, Interested Individuals and Organizations), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 259:

The ability of Red Deer stags to lower their larynx when roaring appears to be one of the exaggerators of formant dispersal, since the resting position of the male larynx is already lower than the typical mammalian position. [...] Size exaggeration provides an intriguing, non-linguistic explanation for the descent of the human larynx [...].

2003, John Maynard Smith, David Harper, “Indices of Quality”, in Animal Signals, Oxford, Oxforshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 2004, →ISBN, 4.2 Are Mammalian Sounds Reliable Indices of Size?, page 47:

Study of intubated larynges from infants of 22 to 40 weeks' gestation who survived a few hours to 300 days showed acute injury was almost invariable, and up to 100% of the subglottic epithelium was lost within a few hour of intubation, but progression of injury was relatively short-lived.

2015, George H. Zalzal, Robin Thomas Cotton, “Glottic and Subglottic Stenosis”, in Marci M. Lesperance, Paul W. Flint, Cummings Pediatric Otolaryngology, Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders, Elsevier, →ISBN, 6: Pharynx, Larynx, Trachea, and Esophagus, page 350, column 2:

(anatomy, zootomy) A hollow muscular organ of the neck of mammals situated just below where the tract of the pharynx splits into the trachea and the oesophagus. It is involved in breath control and protection of the trachea, and, because it houses the vocal cords, sound production.

laring

organ involved in breath control, protection of the trachea, and sound production

បំពង់កក្នុង

bɑmpʊəŋ kɑɑ knoŋ


flipper

From flip + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Flappert (“flipper, wing”).

cog

In marine mammals such as whales (or other aquatic animals such as sea turtles), a wide flat, limb adapted for swimming.


whisker

Middle English wisker, whisk (verb) + -er

One of the long, projecting hairs growing at the sides of the mouth of a cat, or other animal.

snor

long projecting hair at the sides of the mouth of a cat

(nautical) Spreaders from the bows to spread the bowsprit shrouds.

(statistics) A graphic element that shows the maxima and minima in a box plot.

Whisker

a graphic element that shows the maxima and minima in a box plot

One who, or that which, whisks, or moves with a quick, sweeping motion.

(metallurgy) A small tendril that forms on metal.


dorsal

en-adj

dorsal (comparative more dorsal, superlative most dorsal)

more dorsal (comparative)
most dorsal (superlative)

From Late Middle English dorsal/dorsale, borrowing from Medieval Latin dorsālis (“of or relating to the back”), from dorsum (“the back”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to dorsum + -al.

ظَهْرِيّ

relating to the side in which the backbone is located

(anatomy, zootomy) With respect to, or concerning the side in which the backbone is located, or the analogous side of an invertebrate.

(anatomy) Relating to the top surface of the foot or hand.

背側

relating to the top surface of foot or hand

(linguistics, of a sound) Produced using the dorsum of the tongue.


dorsal

(zootomy, in snakes) Any of the longitudinal series of plates that encircle the body, excluding the ventral scales.


frontal

Borrowed from New Latin frontālis, from frons (“the forehead, brow, front”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix), equivalent to front + -al; cognate of French frontal. Doublet of frontalis.

(zootomy) Any of the scales of a reptile that lie in the general region of the forehead, more specifically between the eyes and to the anterior of this area.


sucker

From Middle English souker, sokere, sukkere, soukere, equivalent to suck (verb) + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Suuger, West Frisian sûker (“sucker”), Dutch zuiger (“sucker”), German Sauger (“dummy; vacuum”).

An organ or body part that does the sucking; especially a round structure on the bodies of some insects, frogs, and octopuses that allows them to stick to surfaces.


pizzle

From Dutch Low Saxon pesel or West Flemish pezel, diminutive of Middle Dutch pese (“a sinew, tendon, string, pizzle”), from Old Dutch *pisa (“sinew, string, fibre”), possibly ultimately related to vezel (“fiber”), from Proto-West Germanic *fas-il-, from Proto-Indo-European *pē̆s- (“to blow”) (see Old High German faso (“fiber”)); in which case this alternation *pes- / *fes- may indicate a repeated borrowing from a (non-Indo-European?) substrate language.
Cognate with Dutch pees, Middle Low German pese (“tendon, bowstring”), Dutch pees (“sinew, tendon”), German Low German Peserick, Pesel (“pizzle”), dialectal German Pisel (“penis”).

cog

A baton made from the penis of an ox, once used to beat men and animals.


pharynx

Borrowing from New Latin pharynx, from Ancient Greek φᾰ́ρῠγξ (phárunx, “throat”).

der

(zootomy) The part of the alimentary canal immediately behind the mouth in invertebrates that may be thickened and muscular, eversible and toothed, or adapted as a suctorial organ.


plumage

en-noun

plumage (countable and uncountable, plural plumages)

From Old French plumage (14c.), itself from plume (“feather”) (from Latin plūma (“feather, down”), from a Proto-Indo-European base *plews- (“to pluck, a feather, fleece”) + -age.

[Owner]: No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
[Mr. Praline]: The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.

1969, Monty Python, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, in Dead Parrot sketch:

(ornithology, collective noun) Layer or collection of feathers covering a bird’s body; feathers used ornamentally; feathering.


cuttlefish bone

cuttlefish bone (plural cuttlefish bones)

/ˌkʌtl̩fɪʃ ˈbəʊn/

The calcareous, oval-shaped internal shell of a cuttlefish (order Sepiida), originally used in powdered form as an antacid and for absorbing moisture or polishing objects, and now chiefly as a dietary supplement for cage birds.


fetlock

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fetlock.wav

From Middle English fitlokes, feetlakkes pl, equivalent to foot + lock (“tuft of hair”). Cognate with Middle Low German fitlok, fitlock (“fetlock”), Dutch vitlok, vittelokke, vitslok, German Fissloch, Fisloch, Fislach (“fetlock; pastern”).

The tuft of hair that grows at this joint.


stifle

The verb is derived from Late Middle English stuflen (“to have difficulty breathing due to heat, stifle; to suffocate by drowning, drown”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, perhaps from stuffen (“to kill by suffocation; to stifle from heat; to extinguish, suppress (body heat, breath, humour, etc.); to deprive a plant of the conditions necessary for growth, choke”) + -el- (derivational infix in verbs, often denoting diminutive, intensive, or repetitive actions or events). Stuffen is derived from Old French estofer, estouffer (“to choke, strangle, suffocate; (figuratively) to inhibit, prevent”) [and other forms] (modern French étouffer), a variant of estoper, estuper (“to block, plug, stop up; to stiffen, thicken”) (modern French étouper (“to caulk”)), influenced by estofer (“to pad, stuff; to upholster”) (modern French étoffer). Estoper is derived from Vulgar Latin *stuppāre, from Latin stuppa (“coarse flax, tow”) (as a stuffing material; from Ancient Greek στύπη (stúpē), στύππη (stúppē) (compare στυππεῖον (stuppeîon)); probably from Pre-Greek) + -āre. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a derivation from Old Norse stífla (“to dam; to choke, stop up”) “appears untenable on the ground both of form and sense”.
The noun is derived from the verb.

noncog

(rare) An act or state of being stifled.


stifle

The noun is derived from Middle English stifle (“joint between the femur and tibia of a quadruped”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, probably derived from Anglo-Norman estive (“leg”), and Old French estive (“leg”) (compare Old French estival (“boot, shoe”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.

ref

From C[harles] J[ames] Korinek, A[lbie] W[illiam] Korinek (1915) “Diseases of the Horse: Cause, Symptoms and Treatment”, in Diseases of Domestic Animals and Poultry: Their Cause, Symptoms and Treatment, Portland, Or.: Korinek Remedy Company, →OCLC, page 10.

inh

(zootomy) The joint between the femur and tibia in the hind leg of various four-legged mammals, especially horses, corresponding to the knee in humans.


cloaca

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cloaca.wav

Borrowed from Latin cloāca (“sewer”), from cluō (“cleanse; purge”).

In birds the rectum, at the termination of its canal, forms an oval or elongated pouch […] and then expands into a cavity, which has been named cloaca.

1822, John Mason Good, The Study of Medicine, volume I, page 7:

(anatomy, zoology) The opening in reptiles, amphibians and birds, as well as elasmobranchians, lobe-finned fishes and monotreme mammals, which serves as the common outlet for the urogenital ducts and rectum.

клоа́ка

anatomical feature of birds, reptiles, etc.

総排出腔

そうはいしゅつこう, sōhaishutsukō, そうはいしゅつくう, sōhaishutsukū

排出腔

はいしゅつこう, haishutsukō, はいしゅつくう, haishutsukū

Across this shell [sc. of bone] small holes are eaten, by which the matter escapes, and which are called cloacae (Weidmann).

1846, Joseph François Malgaigne, translated by Frederick Brittan, Manual of Operative Surgery, page 172:

(anatomy) A duct through which gangrenous material escapes a body.

(embryology) Structure in the embryo during the development of the reproductive and urinary systems.


heterodont

/ˈhɛtəɹəʊdɒnt/

/ˈhɛtəɹəˌdɑnt/

From hetero- (prefix meaning ‘different’) + -odont (suffix meaning ‘tooth; toothed’). Hetero- is derived from Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros, “one or the other of two; different”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“together; one”); while -odont is from Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús, “tooth; tusk”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- (“to bite”) + *-ónts (suffix forming nouns denoting body parts). By surface analysis, hetero- + -odont.

der

"On the Homologies and Notation of the Teeth of Mammalia," by W[illiam] H[enry] Flower, F.R.S. […] The classification and special homologies of the teeth of the heterodont mammals was next discussed.

1868, “Quarterly Chronicle of Microscopical Science”, in Edwin Lankester, George Busk, editors, Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, volume VIII (New Series; volume XVI overall), London: John Churchill and Sons, […], →OCLC, pages 277–278:

The adaptation of the form of the teeth on both sides to this position, and the accurate adjustment of their contiguous surfaces, shows that it is a natural conformation. They are, moreover, of very nearly even height throughout the series, and in their configuration present a remarkable and gradual transition from the first incisor to the last molar, easily traced in both jaws, and more even and regular than in any other known heterodont mammal.

1873 June 19, William Henry Flower, “VI. On a Newly Discovered Extinct Ungulate Mammal from Patagonia, Homalodontotherium Cunninghami.”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, volume 164, London: […] Taylor and Francis, […], published 1874, →OCLC, page 175:

The few common characters by which the Edentata are associated are too well known to need repetition. The principal one is the abseance of any trace of the typical heterodont and diphyodont dentition, found in a more or less modified form in all other placental mammals.

1882 April 18, William Henry Flower, “On the Mutual Affinities of the Animals Composing the Order Edentata”, in Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London, number XXV, London: […] [Zoological] Society [of London]; Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 359:

[I]n many heterodont forms the teeth at the anterior end of the series of premolars and molars are small teeth, standing to the teeth behind them as the first terms of a series more or less regularly progressing in size.

1894, William Bateson, “Linear Series—continued”, in Materials for the Study of Variation Treated with Especial Regard to Discontinuity in the Origin of Species, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 269:

The process of evolution of the specialised heterodont dentition of the Mammalia, or of the Theriodontia, from the simple homodont and polyphyodont dentition of the lower Reptilia would, I think, necessarily cause a reduction in number of the successional sets of teeth, due to an enlargement of one set and a consequent abstraction of growth, energy and material from the underlying sets.

1894 August 1, M. F. Woodward, “On the Succession and Genesis of Mammalian Teeth”, in W. H. Dolamore, editor, The Dental Record: A Monthly Journal of Dental Science, Art, and Literature, Devoted to the Interests of the Profession, volume XIV, number 8, London, Manchester: Dental Manufacturing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 375:

Finally the structure of the palate in ?Acrodus (and to a lesser extent, Hybodus and Asteracanthus) shows certain general resemblances to that of modern heterodont sharks, particularly in the lower postorbital ramus, absence of an orbital process, well-developed ethmoidal articulations and absence of a basal angle.

1981 April 2, Keith Stewart Thomson, “An Early Triassic Hybodont Shark from Northern Madagascar”, in Postilla, number 186, New Haven, Conn.: Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, published 15 February 1982, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13, column 1:

Mammalian teeth are characteristically heterodont, i.e. teeth are dissimilar in shape and size.

2007 March, “Dentition in Mammals”, in Mahendra Jain, editor, Competition Science Vision: A Specialized Magazine for Medical Entrance & 10+2 Exams, volume 10, number 109, Agra, Uttar Pradesh: Mahendra Jain for Pratiyogita Darpan, →OCLC, page 76, column 2:

The first cetaceans were heterodont and had multicusped cheek teeth. […] The earliest odontocetes were heterodont, and the earliest mysticetes retained teeth[…], though vascular grooves on their palates suggest baleen too[…].

2010, Peter S. Ungar, “Cenozoic Mammalian Evolution”, in Mammal Teeth: Origin, Evolution, and Diversity, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, part II (The Evolution of Mammal Teeth), page 120, column 1:

(zootomy) Having teeth of different types (like most mammals).


gill

From Middle English gille, gylle (“gill”), of North Germanic origin, akin to Danish gælle, Swedish gäl, Norwegian gjelle, and further to Old Norse gjǫlnar (“lips”), which also may have had the meaning of "gills" (based on Old Danish fiskegæln (“gills”)). The Old Norse word has been suggested as deriving from Proto-Germanic *gelunō (“jaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel-, which would make it root-cognate to Ancient Greek χελύνη (khelúnē, “lip, jaw”), χεῖλος (kheîlos, “lip”).
Displaced native Old English ċīe.

cog

Gill nets are designed to catch a fish by the gills.


croup

From Scots croup, croop (“the croup”), from Scots croup, crowp, croop (“to croak, speak hoarsely, murmur, complain”), from Old Scots crowp, crope, croap (“to call loudly, croak”), alteration of rowp, roup, roip, rope (“to cry, cry hoarsely, roop”), from Middle English roupen, ropen, from Old English hrōpan (“to shout, proclaim; cry out, scream, howl”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōpaną (“to shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *ker-, *kor- (“to caw, crow”). More at roop.

der

(pathology) An infectious illness of the larynx, especially in young children, causing respiratory difficulty.


rictus

His face was a rictus of sheer delight.

Amid a thick, bristling beard, a nose like an owl's beak and a mouth whose corners were drawn by a wild-beast-like rictus were just discernible.

1899, Victor Hugo, translated by Paul Maurice, The Memoirs of Victor Hugo:

A rictus of cruel malignity lit up greyly their old bony faces.

1916, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

Sword and shield, bone and steel / Rictus grin / Deaf forever to the battle's din

1986, “Deaf Forever”, performed by Motörhead:

Valves plugs pumps to erase/ rictus from my face.

1990, “Nothingface”, performed by Voivod:

The absolute incarnation of evil, Adolf Hitler, lies at your feet in a pool of his own blood. His wrinkled, crimson-splattered visage still strains, a jagged-toothed rictus trying to cry out. Insane even in death. Your lips pinched in bitter victory, you kick his head off his remains and spit on his corpse.

1993, Wolfenstein 3D, scene: after defeating Hitler (episode 3), level/area: 9:

It squinted at her through the hated light, its brow a rictus of pain and fear.

2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 56:

The apprentice watched his Master, pain twisting his features into a rictus.

2008, Sean Williams, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, page 81:


ventricle

From late Middle English, from Latin ventriculus (“the belly”), diminutive of venter (“the belly”). Doublet of ventriculus.

Coordinate term: atrium

Meronyms: left ventricle, right ventricle

The muscular ventricles pump blood by contracting their fibers in response to electrical stimulation.

2018, Sandeep Jauhar, Heart: a History, →ISBN, page 47:

(anatomy, zootomy) Any small cavity within a body; a hollow part or organ, especially:

Meronyms: fourth ventricle, lateral ventricle, third ventricle

the ventricle of memory

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

(neuroanatomy) One of four fluid-filled cavities in the brain, that are continuous with the central canal of the spinal cord.

[On birds] Where omitting the more general Properties, of having two Ventricles, and picking up stones to conveigh them into their second Ventricle, the Gizzern, (which provision and instinct is a supply for the want of teeth;) […]

1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II: A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, page 72:

(archaic) A ventriculus; especially, a stomach.


wattle

en-noun

wattle (countable and uncountable, plural wattles)

From Middle English wattel, watel, from Old English watel, watul (“hurdle”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, wind, bend”).

der

A single twig or rod laid on a roof to support the thatch.


mandible

From late Middle English, from Late Latin mandibula (“a jaw”), from mandō (“to chew, masticate”) + -bula (instrument noun suffix).

af

Coordinate term: maxilla

The jaw or a jawbone, especially the lower jawbone in mammals and fishes.

Either of the upper and lower segments of a bird's beak.

Any of various invertebrate mouthparts serving to hold or bite food materials.

One of the anterior pair of mouthparts of an arthropod, designed for holding and cutting food.


claw

From Middle English clawe, from Old English clawu, from Proto-Germanic *klawō. Compare West Frisian klau, Dutch klauw, German Klaue, Danish klo, Norwegian klo, and Swedish klo.

(colloquial) A human fingernail, particularly one extending well beyond the fingertip.

a narrow base, as the petals of a Rose, where the claw is very short

1857, Asa Gray, First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology:

(botany) A slender appendage or process, formed like a claw, such as the base of petals of the pink.


claw

en-verb

claw (third-person singular simple present claws, present participle clawing, simple past and past participle clawed)

claws (present singular third-person)
clawing (participle present)
clawed (participle past)
clawed (past)

From Middle English clawen, from Old English clawan, clāwan, *clēn, clawian, from Proto-Germanic *klawjaną.

De Gea was United's hero again within seconds of Hernandez's equaliser, diving to his left to claw away Dirk Kuyt's shot as he got on the end of a superb cross from Stewart Downing.

2011 October 15, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 1 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:


cercus

From New Latin cercus, from Ancient Greek κέρκος (kérkos, “tail”).

(entomology) A structure on the end of the abdomen of most insects, sometimes long, hairlike sensory organs and sometimes smaller and rigid.


hind leg

Coordinate term: foreleg

“Can you hop on your hind legs?” asked the furry rabbit.
That was a dreadful question, for the Velveteen Rabbit had no hind legs at all! The back of him was made all in one piece, like a pincushion. He sat still in the bracken, and hoped that the other rabbits wouldn’t notice.

1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Either of the two legs towards the rear of a four-legged animal.


foreleg

Coordinate term: hind leg

For example, the foreleg of the mole is admirably suited for digging underground. A similar modification is found in an entirely different group of the animal kingdom, namely, in the mole cricket[…] In both of these cases the adaptation is the more obvious, because, while the leg of the mole is formed on the same general plan as that of other vertebrates, and the leg of the mole cricket has the same fundamental structure as that of other insects, yet in both cases the details of structure and the general proportions have been so altered, that the leg is fitted for entirely different purposes from that to which the legs of other vertebrates and of other insects are put.

1903, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Evolution and adaptation:

Clover made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg[…]

1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

Either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal such as a horse, or towards the front of a many-legged animal such as most insects, or of a piece of furniture, etc.

前腳

either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal


oral cavity

(zootomy, in haustellate insects, rare) The hollow on the lower surface of the head from which the proboscis protrudes.


hyoid

Borrowing from French hyoïde, from New Latin hȳoīdēs, from Ancient Greek ῡ̔οειδής (hūoeidḗs, “shaped like the letter "υ"”), from ὖ (û, “the Greek letter upsilon”) + -ο- (-o-) + -ειδής (-eidḗs, “-like, -oid”).

af

(anatomy, zootomy, relational) Of or pertaining to the hyoid bone.


maxilla

en-noun

maxilla (plural maxillae or (obsolete) maxillæ or maxillas)

maxillae (plural)
maxillæ (obsolete plural)
maxillas (plural)

From Middle English, from Latin māxilla (“the jawbone, jaw”), diminutive of māla (“the cheekbone, jaw”).

Coordinate term: mandible

An upper jaw especially of humans and other mammals in which the bony elements are closely fused.

(anatomy) Either of the two bones that lie with one on each side of the upper jaw lateral to the premaxilla and that in higher vertebrates bear most of the teeth.

(zootomy) One of the first or second pair of mouthparts posterior to the mandibles in many arthropods that are used for tasting and manipulating food.


stapes

From Medieval Latin stapēs (“stirrup”). Doublet of step.

The tympanic cavity is spanned by the three smallest bones in the body: the auditory ossicles[…] These bones, named for their shape, are the malleus (malʹe-us; "hammer"); the incus (ingʹkus; "anvil"); and the stapes (staʹpēz; "stirrup"). The "handle" of the malleus is secured to the eardrum, and the base of the stapes fits into the oval window.

2010, Elaine Nicpon Marieb, Katja Hoehn, Human Anatomy & Physiology, 8th edition, page 576:

(anatomy, zootomy) A small stirrup-shaped innermost ossicle of the middle ear of mammals, transmitting vibrations from the incus to the inner ear.


tarsus

kitax̂

the part of the foot between the main part of the hindlimb and the metatarsus

(anatomy, zootomy) The part between the main part of the hindlimb and the metatarsus in terrestrial vertebrates.

(anatomy) A group of small bones in this part of the foot. The seven bones of the human tarsus form the ankle and upper part of the foot.

глезен

any of the seven bones in this part of the foot

On the ledge, the guillemots shuffle awkwardly about on their tarsi, the long bone connecting the ‘ankle’ to the feet.

2020, Tim Ecott, The Land of Maybe, Short Books, published 2021, page 99:

(zootomy) The shank or tarsometatarsus of the leg of a bird or reptile.

(zootomy) The true foot or the fifth joint of the leg of an insect or other arthropod, typically consisting of several small segments and ending in a claw.


tarsal

From tarsus + -al, cognate to New Latin tarsālis.

(anatomy, zootomy) Of or relating to the tarsus.


tarsal

(anatomy, zootomy) Ellipsis of tarsal bone.


nasal bone

(anatomy, zootomy) Either of two bones of the skull of vertebrates above the fishes which lie in front of the frontal bones and in humans are oblong in shape forming by their junction the bridge of the nose and partly covering the nasal cavity.


vertebral

-ɜː(ɹ)tɪbɹəl

(zootomy) Any of the large dorsal scales along the top of a snake's back.


mastoid

Borrowed from New Latin mastoīdēs, from Ancient Greek μᾰστοειδής (mastoeidḗs, “like a breast”), from μᾰστός (mastós, “a woman's breast”) + -ειδής (-eidḗs, “-like, -oid”).

af

(anatomy) Being the process of the temporal bone behind the ear.

(zootomy) Being any of several bony elements that occupy a similar position in the skull of lower vertebrates.


withers

en-noun

withers pl (normally plural, singular wither)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-withers.wav

From dialectal English wither (“against”) (compare wither-) + -s; see with. So-named because it is the part of the horse that pushes against a load. Compare German Widerrist (“withers”), from wider (“against”) + Rist (“wrist”).

The part of the back of a four-legged animal that is between the shoulder blades; in many species the highest point of the body and the standard place to measure the animal's height.


uropod

/ˈjʊəɹəˌpɒd/

Coordinate term: pleopod

(anatomy) either of the two posterior abdominal appendages of the lobster, shrimp and some other crustaceans.

(immunology) the hind part of polarized leukocytes, mostly involved in cell-to-cell interaction, cell activation and apoptosis.


talon

From Middle English talon, taloun, from Old French talon (“heel, spur”), from Medieval Latin tālōnem, from Vulgar Latin *tālōnis, from Latin tālus (“ankle”).

and now doth gaſtly death
With greedie talients gripe my bleeding hart,
And like a Harpye tires on my life.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii:

It may be tried also whether birds may not have something done to them when they are young , whereby they may be made to have greater or longer bills , or greater and longer talons ?

1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VIII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

A sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.


sinus

Learned borrowing from Latin sinus (“a bent surface, curve, hollow”). Doublet of sine.

lbor

(anatomy, zootomy) A pouch or cavity in a bone or other tissue, especially one in the bones of the face or skull connecting with the nasal cavities (the paranasal sinus).


incisor

Borrowing from New Latin incīsor, from incīdō (“to cut into, cut through”) + -tor (“-er, -or”, agent noun suffix).

af

(anatomy, zootomy) A narrow-edged tooth at the front of the mouth of mammals, between the canines and adapted for cutting; in humans there are four in each jaw.


philtrum

Borrowed from the Latin philtrum (“a love potion”), from Ancient Greek φῐ́λτρον (phíltron, “a love charm; the dimple in the upper lip”). Doublet of philter.

bor

(zootomy) The junction between the two halves of an animal's upper lip or nose.


petiole

Borrowed from French pétiole, and its source, Late Latin petiolus (“little foot”), diminutive form of Latin pēs (“foot”).

(entomology, insect anatomy) A narrow or constricted segment of the body of an insect; especially, the metasomal segment of certain Hymenoptera, such as wasps.


spinal

Borrowed from Late Latin spīnālis (“of or belonging to the spine”), from spīna (“a prickle, spine”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). By surface analysis, spine + -al.

af

(anatomy, zootomy) Of or relating to the spine.

Of or relating to the spine.
Of or pertaining to the spinal cord.

(zoology) (of a frog or other experimental animal) Having a pithed brain, but an intact surgically isolated spinal cord.


chela

In fact, Gilgamesh's instructions are still-valid directions from the guru to the chela.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 184:

The guru had insight. He understood his chela. The relationship between a guru and his chela was as a father to a son, as a whole person to a whole person, individual and unique.

1987, Phirozshah Dorabji Mehta, The Heart of Religion, page 36:

The guru-chela relationship was a theme in many of Nicholas's paintings. In Pearl of Searching, the guru is looking thoughtfully at a pearl necklace with his chela. This symbolizes the "pearl of great price" that gives purpose to life.

2002, Warrior of Light: The Life of Nicholas Roerich: Artist, Himalayan Explorer, and Visionary, page 52:

This, of course, is done by the guru as the result of a long process in which his consciousness must merge with that of the chela and wherein the chela is absorbed essentially into the guru.

2007, Michael Bertiaux, The Voudon Gnostic Workbook: Expanded Edition, page 455:

A pupil or disciple, especially in Hinduism. [from 19th c.]


gladius

From Latin gladius (“Roman short sword, gladius”). Doublet of glaive.

bor

From the Cretaceous of North America fossilised gladii in the enigmatic genus Tusoteuthis have been estimated to give a mantle length (body size) of 1.8m, just less than that of the giant squid’s.

2017 October 31, Mark Carnall, The Guardian:

(zoology) A pen, a hard internal bodypart of certain cephalopods, made of chitin-like material.


pronotum

Phycosecids are small, ovate, convex beetles with a prognathous head, partly covered by a semicircular projection of the pronotum and a dorsal vestiture of whitish scales or scalelike setae.

2013, Adam Slipinski, Australian Beetles Volume 1: Morphology, Classification and Keys:

The dorsal plate of the prothorax in insects


anal fin

(ichthyology) A fin located on the underside of a fish behind the anus.


dorsal fin

A fin located on the backs of fish and some marine mammals.


pectoral fin

(ichthyology) Either of two fins located on each side of a fish just behind the head.


pelvic fin

(ichthyology) Either of a pair of fins on either side and towards the rear of a fish.


caudal fin

The tailfin of a fish and other aquatic vertebrates.

ফিছা

the tailfin of a fish and other aquatic vertebrates


merus

From Ancient Greek μηρός (mērós, “thigh”).

(zoology) The meropodite; the first segment of the raptorial appendage of a crustacean.

(architecture) The plane surface between the channels of a triglyph.


barbel

PIE word
 *bʰardʰéh₂
From Middle English barbel, from Old French barbel, from Vulgar Latin *barbellus, from Late Latin barbulus, diminutive of Latin barbus.

The Barble fishes, if one of them chance to be engaged, will set the line against their backes, and with a fin they have, toothed like a sharp saw, presently saw and fret the same asunder.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

A freshwater fish of the genus Barbus or other closely related genera.

(biology) Whisker-like sensory organs, located around the mouth of certain fish, including catfish, carp, goatfish, sturgeon, and some types of shark.

barbo

whisker-like sensory organs of certain fish

A barb or pap under the tongues of horses and cattle.


lamina

en-noun

lamina (plural laminae or (archaic) laminæ or laminas)

laminae (plural)
laminæ (archaic plural)
laminas (plural)

Borrowed from Latin lāmina (“a thin piece of metal, wood, marble; a plate, leaf, layer”). Doublet of lame.

bor

A thin layer, plate, or scale of material.

(zootomy) One of the narrow thin parallel plates of soft vascular sensitive tissue that cover the flesh within the wall of a hoof.


pecker

From Middle English pekker, equivalent to peck (“to pick at something in the manner of a bird”) + -er (“forming agent nouns”).

af

Rice mills, called pecker, cog, and water mills... The first... so called, from the pestle's striking... in the manner of a wood pecker.

1802, J. Drayton, A view of South Carolina, as respects her natural and civil concerns, page 121:

After being thrashed by flail or whipped off, the rice was milled and dressed wholly by hand or by a crude machine called a ‘pecker’.

1949, S. C. Murray, This Our Land: the Story of the Agricultural Society of South Carolina, page 41:

Someone who or something that pecks, striking or piercing in the manner of a bird's beak or bill, particularly:

(uncommon) Any machine or machine part moving in a pecking fashion, particularly:

(US regional, historical) Clipping of pecker mill, a rice mill.


cavernous

en-adj

cavernous (comparative more cavernous, superlative most cavernous)

more cavernous (comparative)
most cavernous (superlative)

Late Middle English cavernous, cavernose, borrowing from Old French caverneux or Latin cavernōsus (“full of hollows or cavities”), from caverna (“a hollow, cavity, cave”) + -ōsus (“-ous, -ose”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to cavern + -ous.

af

(anatomy, zootomy) Composed largely of vascular sinuses and capable of dilating with blood to bring about the erection of a body part.


crupper

From Middle English croper, crouper, from Anglo-Norman cruper, cropere, from Old French cropiere, crupiere, from the same Germanic root as croup. Doublet of croupiere.

Our knight did bear no less a pack / Of his own buttocks on his back: / Which now had almost got the upper- / Hand of his head, for want of crupper.

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

he eſpied a mule's crupper, which hung to the ceiling of the room; this he took down, and tendering it to Don Quixote, went on, ſaying...

1784, Alonzo Fernandez de Avellaneda, translated by William Augustus Yardley, A continuation of the history and adventures of the renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha: The Novelist's Magazine, volume 16, page 112:

Captain went out in the cab all the morning. Harry came in after school to feed me and give me water. In the afternoon I was put into the cab. Jerry took as much pains to see if the collar and bridle fitted comfortably, as if he had been John Manly over again. When the crupper was let out a hole or two, it all fitted well. There was no bearing rein—no curb—nothing but a plain ring snaffle. What a blessing that was!

[1877], Anna Sewell, “A London Cab Horse”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part III, page 158:

I sought among the mules one with a mild expression of generosity and gentleness in its eyes, and found it in a white mule with a crupper adorned with arabesques.

1882, Edmondo de Amicis, Morocco: Its People & Places, tr. C. Rollin-Tilton

A strap, looped under a horse's tail, used to stop a saddle from slipping.


pincers

From Middle English pynsours, from Old French pinceure, pinchure, from pincier (“to pinch”).

Milk formed their chief diet, and this they were supposed to imbibe from the witch herself, from a third "teat" which had been made beneath the arm by a nip from the Devil's pincers.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 107:

A gripping tool, pivoted like a pair of scissors, but with blunt jaws.


frenulum

Borrowed from New Latin frēnulum, diminutive of frēnum (“a bridle, curb, bit”).

(entomology, zootomy) A bristle or row of bristles on the edge of the hindwings of some lepidoptera which unites the wings by interlocking with a catch on the posterior part of the forewings.


horsefeathers

The "nonsense" sense, a euphemism for horseshit, is horse + feathers, a nonexistent item as only birds have feathers. Compare hen’s teeth.
The "horse hair" sense notes the similarity of that hair to bird feathers.
Regarding the roofing sense, compare feathering strip and horsefeathers.

The exterior of the court is entirely of sheathing and wood shingles applied over "horsefeathers."

1940, New York lumber trade journal, volumes 108-9, page 26:

In summary, the record establishes that to produce horsefeathers one starts by sawing a log (longitudinally) into boards or planks, which are then likewise center resawn (longitudinally); that the original boards, as well as the center resawn boards, have at least two approximately parallel longitudinal sawed surfaces; that the resawn boards are simply resawn again longitudinally at an angle or bevel to produce horsefeathers; and that the only other sawing required is the crosscutting of the boards to length.

1968 United States Customs Court, First Division, A. N. DERINGER, INC. v. UNITED STATES 287 F.Supp. 1016 (1968) August 8, 1968

Feathering strips, called horsefeathers, can be used to level cedar-shingle roof before reroofing with asphalt shingles

1978 April, Joseph R. Provey, “How to reroof your house like a pro”, in Popular Mechanics, page 160:

To install shakes or shingles over beveled siding, fill in the low points of the existing wall with lumber or plywood strips (called horse feathers).

2005, Daniel Benn Atcheson, Roofing Construction and Estimating, Craftsman Book Company, page 192:


gaskin

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gaskin.wav

That if one [lace] break, the other will hold; or, if both break, your gaskins fall.

c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:


tympanum

Borrowed from Latin tympanum (“a drum, timbrel, tambourine; the eardrum”). Doublet of timbre and timpani.

قَلْب القَوْصَرَة

triangular space between the sides of a pediment

(anatomy, zootomy) Any of various anatomic structures in various animals with analogy to a drum head:

(anatomy, zootomy) The eardrum (tympanic membrane, membrana tympanica).

(anatomy, zootomy) The main portion of the middle ear: the tympanic cavity (cavitas tympani).

(zootomy, entomology) A thin tense membrane covering the hearing organ on the leg or body of some insects, sometimes adapted (as in cicadas) for producing sound.

(zootomy) A membranous resonator in a sound-producing organ in frogs and toads.

(zootomy) (in certain birds) The labyrinth at the bottom of the windpipe.


blowhole

(marine biology) A hole in sea ice where cetaceans and pinnipeds come to breathe.

אָטעמלאָך

hole in sea ice through which cetaceans breathe

(geology) A top-facing opening to a cavity in the ground very near an ocean's shore, leading to a marine cave from which wave water or bursts of air are expelled.

吹蝕穴

A top-facing opening to a cavity in the ground very near an ocean's shore, that leads to a marine cave from which wave water and/or bursts of air are expelled.

(metallurgy) An unintended cavity filled with air in a casting product.

gietblaas

(computer hardware) A vertical opening in the top of a computer case that lets hot air (primarily from the CPU heat sink) escape quickly.


blowhole

en-verb

blowhole (third-person singular simple present blowholes, present participle blowholing, simple past and past participle blowholed)

blowholes (present singular third-person)
blowholing (participle present)
blowholed (participle past)
blowholed (past)

(metallurgy, transitive, intransitive) To fill or be filled with air in an unintended cavity.


ruga

Borrowed from Latin rūga (“a crease in the face, wrinkle”).

bor

Female: Face subpolished, weakly rugose, rugae somewhat diverging, at sides sparsely and shallowly punctate; […]

1980, Joseph Kenneth Jonathan, The Isotima-complex (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), page 83:

the deadly water-snakes coil’d together like the Rugæ of a single great Brain, the gray and even illumination from the Sky

(anatomy, zootomy, botany, usually in the plural) A fold, crease or wrinkle.


olfactory

From Latin olfactus (“an act of smelling; the sense of smell”) + -ory, from olfaciō (“to sniff, smell, scent”) + -tus (action noun suffix).

af

(anatomy, zootomy) Ellipsis of olfactory organ.


spiracle

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-spiracle.wav

From Latin spiraculum, from spirare (“to breathe”).

A pore or opening used (especially by arthropods and some fish) for respiration.


mala

Learned borrowing from Latin māla (“the cheekbone, jaw”).

lbor

(zootomy)
A single lobe of an insect's maxilla.

The grinding surface of an insect's mandible.

The third segment of a mandible of some myriapods.


syrinx

/sɪˈɹɪnd͡ʒiːz/

Learned borrowing from Latin sȳrinx (“reed; reed pipe, panpipes”), from Ancient Greek σῦριγξ (sûrinx, “panpipes; pipe-shaped object”), from Pre-Greek. Doublet of syringe.
The plural form syringes is a learned borrowing from Latin sȳringes.

der

This tube is named the Windpipe, Trachea, or Aspera-arteria; […] its lower extremity, or the part at which it bifurcates, is the Lower Larynx, or the Syrinx. Besides acting as a pipe to the lungs, it is also the organ of the voice, the air in passing through it causing its membranes so to vibrate, and being so acted upon by the muscles attached to it, as to give rise to the various cries and notes emitted by birds, although the palate, the tongue, and the mandibles also operate in modifying the sounds thus produced.

1839, William MacGillivray, “Practical Ornithology. Fifth Lesson.”, in A History of British Birds, Indigenous and Migratory: […], volume II (Cantatores, Songsters), London: […] [W. Burness] for Scott, Webster, and Geary, […], →OCLC, page 19:

The role of the syrinx in psittacine sound production is still under examination, and probably differs from that of songbirds. […] For species with relatively simple syringes but complex vocal behavior (such as Grey parrots), these data imply that other structures must modify syringeal output.

1999, Irene Maxine Pepperberg, “How Does a Grey Parrot Produce Human Speech Sounds?”, in The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, published 2002, →ISBN, page 293:

The primary sound-producing organ in a bird is the syrinx and the secondary system aiding sound production consists of the larynx, mouth, tongue and laryngeal muscles. […] Birds vocalise by expelling air over the elastic membranes of the syrinx housed within the inter-clavicular sac, an air sac in the pleural cavity.

2007, Gisela Kaplan, “Emotions, Vocal Behaviour and Communication”, in Tawny Frogmouth (Australian Natural History Series), Collingwood, Melbourne, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, →ISBN, page 121:

The organ responsible for producing sounds during song is the syrinx, located where the trachea joins the bronchi of the two lungs[…]. Four to six muscles on either side are attached to the syrinx, and sound is produced when air is expelled through it. The flow of air induces part of the syrinx wall to vibrate and generate sound, in a similar way to the operation of the human larynx.

2010, Peter Simmons, David Young, “Nerve Cells and Animal Signalling: Songs of Crickets, Electric Fish and Birds”, in Nerve Cells and Animal Behaviour, 3rd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 247:

(ornithology, zootomy) The voice organ in birds, located at or near where the trachea and the bronchi join.


ventral fin

(ichthyology) A fin, usually paired, located ventrally below the pectoral fins of a fish.


finlet

(ichthyology) Small non-retractable fins, generally on the caudal peduncle between the last dorsal or anal fin and the caudal fin of some fishes. In some groups, such as tuna, finlets are rayless.


cephalic fin

(ichthyology) One of a set of fins that look like horns on either side of the broad head of a manta ray.


adipose fin

(ichthyology) A soft, fleshy fin located behind the dorsal fin and just forward of the caudal fin, found fish of certain families, believed to have some sensory function.

rasvaevä

a soft, fleshy fin found on the back of a fish


cere

en-verb

cere (third-person singular simple present ceres, present participle cering, simple past and past participle cered)

ceres (present singular third-person)
cering (participle present)
cered (participle past)
cered (past)

From Middle English sere, from Old French cire, from Latin cera (“wax, cere”), or via Latin cero (“I smear or coat with wax”).

a strong twisted Thread cered

1676, Richard Wiseman, Severall Chirurgicall Treatises, London: […] E. Flesher and J. Macock, for R[ichard] Royston […], and B[enjamin] Took, […], →OCLC:

(transitive) To wax; to cover or close with wax.


pastern

From Middle English pastron, pastroun, pasturne, from Old French pasturon, diminutive of pasture (“shackle for a horse in pasture”), from Vulgar Latin pastōriā.

It was quite impossible to ride over the deeply-ploughed field; the earth bore only where there was still a little ice, in the thawed furrows the horse's legs sank in above its pasterns.

1918, Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude (Oxford 1998), page 158

Below me, somewhere in the horse-lines, stood Cockbird, picketed to a peg in the ground by a rope which was already giving him a sore pastern.

1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 227:

The part of a horse's leg between the fetlock joint and the hoof.

(obsolete) A shackle for horses while pasturing.

Upright he walks, on pasterns firm and straight;
His motions easy; prancing in his gait
So straight she walk'd, and on her pasterns high.

1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:


mushroom body

From mushroom + body, after German pilzhutförmiger Körper.

In fruit flies the cyclic AMP system seems to be especially active in brain regions called mushroom bodies, toadstool-shaped extrusions of neurons in the fruit fly brain.

1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial, published 2004, page 226:

(entomology) Either of a pair of structures in the brains of insects and some other arthropods thought to be involved in learning and memory.


splint

From Middle English splint, splent, splente, from Middle Low German splinte, splente or Middle Dutch splint, splinte. Cognate with Old High German splinza (“bar, bolt, latch”). All ultimately from Proto-Germanic *splintǭ, *splintō (“piece of wood, splinter”), from Proto-Germanic *splint-, *splind- (“to split”), from a nasalized form of *splītaną (“to split”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to split, splice”).

der

(zootomy) A bone found on either side of a horse's cannon bone; the second or fourth metacarpal (forelimb) or metatarsal (hindlimb) bone.

(zootomy, veterinary medicine) A disease affecting the splint bones, as a callosity or hard excrescence.


salt gland

a specialized gland, located near the eyes or nose of certain marine animals that secretes a liquid having a high salt content; it enables the animal to drink seawater without having to eliminate the excess salt through the kidneys


jewing

In allusion to the curvation stereotypically associated with the noses of Jews.

The carunculation of the base of the beak of some varieties of the domestic pigeon; the lobes or wattles of the lower mandible, often in the form of three small fleshy processes, one at each side and a third beneath and before the others.


cockscomb

From Middle English cokkes comb; equivalent to cock + -s- + comb.

A yellow rattle, Rhinanthus minor (flowering plant native to Eurasia)


marsupium

en-noun

marsupium (plural marsupiums or marsupia)

Borrowed from Latin marsūpium, from Ancient Greek μαρσίππιον (marsíppion), diminutive of μάρσιππος (mársippos, “pouch”), perhaps of Oriental origin.

A brood pouch in some fishes, crustaceans and insects in the family Monophlebidae.


webfoot

Alteration of earlier webbed foot, re-analysed as web + foot.

The Newfoundland dog is a webfoot.


spadix

Via Latin spādīx from Ancient Greek σπᾱ́δῑξ (spā́dīx, “palm branch”).

der

However, the shells of modern nautiluses show the opposite pattern—males are somewhat larger than females, with a wider aperture to accommodate the spadix.

2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 57:

(zoology) A male sexual organ of certain cephalopods and hydrozoans (especially the nautilus), used to transfer sperm.


swim bladder

(anatomy, usually of fish) A gas-filled sac within the bodies of most fish that variously acts as a float, lung, sound-producing organ or an aid to hearing.


ventriculus

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ventriculus (“the belly”), diminutive of venter (“the belly”). Doublet of ventricle.

ubor

(anatomy, zootomy) A digestive cavity such as a gizzard or stomach.


pinion

From Old French pignon, from Latin penna (“feather”).


scolex

en-noun

scolex (plural scolices or scoleces or scolexes)

scolices (plural)
scoleces (plural)
scolexes (plural)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σκώληξ (skṓlēx, “worm”).

The head, with the circle of hooklets and the four suckers, is then formed at the anterior part of the embryo, constituting now the scolex of Van Beneden.

1859, Robert Bentley Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology:

(zoology) The structure at the front end of a tapeworm which, in the adult, has suckers and hooks by which it attaches itself to a host.

escólex

hooked structure at the front end of a tapeworm


pedipalp

From New Latin pedipalpus, from ped-, pēs (“foot”) + palpus (“palpus”).

The defensive movements, on the other hand, involve the whole of the pedipalp being drawn in towards the midline.

1950, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London:

The pedipalp trochanter has a prominent process on its inferior surface, separated by a large area not haired nor spinulated: it serves for the allodgement of the ventral spine of the pedipalp basitarsus when the tibia closes to the femur;

(zoology) Either of a second pair of appendages near the mouth of many arachnids, variously specialized as pincers, sensory or locomotory organs.