labour

labour (countable and uncountable, plural labours)

term-label

(British spelling, Canadian spelling, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)

From Middle English labor, labour, labur, from Old French labor (modern labeur) and its etymon, Latin labor.


memory

en-noun

memory (countable and uncountable, plural memories)

From Anglo-Norman memorie, Old French memoire etc., from Latin memoria (“the faculty of remembering, remembrance, memory, a historical account”), from memor (“mindful, remembering”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (to remember), related to Ancient Greek μνήμη (mnḗmē, “memory”) μέρμερος (mérmeros, “anxious”), μέριμνα (mérimna, “care, thought”), Old English mimor (“mindful, remembering”). More at mimmer. Doublet of memoir and memoria. Displaced native Old English ġemynd.

cog

(zoology, collective, rare) A term of venery for a social group of elephants, normally called a herd.


quest

en-verb

quest (third-person singular simple present quests, present participle questing, simple past and past participle quested)

quests (present singular third-person)
questing (participle present)
quested (participle past)
quested (past)

From Middle English quest, queste; partly from Anglo-Norman queste, Old French queste (“acquisition, search, hunt”), and partly from their source, Latin quaesta (“tribute, tax, inquiry, search”), noun use of quaesita, the feminine past participle of quaerere (“to ask, seek”).

der

(entomology, of a tick) To locate and attach to a host animal.


gallicize

en-verb

gallicize (third-person singular simple present gallicizes, present participle gallicizing, simple past and past participle gallicized)

gallicizes (present singular third-person)
gallicizing (participle present)
gallicized (participle past)
gallicized (past)

From Gallic + -ize, from Latin Gallicus (“of or relating to Gaul”) and used archaically in English in reference to modern France.

der

(transitive) To translate into the French language.


ABC

en-noun

ABC (countable and uncountable, plural ABCs)

(cryptozoology) Initialism of alien big cat.


syzygy

syzygy (countable and uncountable, plural syzygies)

From Late Latin sȳzygia (“conjunction”), from Ancient Greek συζυγία (suzugía, “union, yoke, pair”). This word was recognized as English in 1847 (in its astronomical meaning).

der

When two or more arm-joints meet transversely by a rigid suture, and only the upper one is pinnule-bearing, those joints form a syzygy, whether their apposed faces are striated, dotted, or smooth.

1900, Karl Alfred von Zittel, Text-book of Paleontology: Protozoa. Coelentrata (zoophytes). Echinodermata. Vermes (Worms). Molluscoidea. Mollusca. Arthropoda (articulates):

These include syzygy, fusion of larvae or adults of flatworms, fusion of buds of some Tunicata, somatic fertilization (fusion of spermatozoa with somatic cells), composite zygotes of some Cestoda and Insecta, and fusion of cells in various tissues.

2018, Richard E. Blackwelder, The Diversity of Animal Reproduction, CRC Press, →ISBN:

(zoology) The association of two protozoa end-to-end or laterally for the purpose of asexual exchange of genetic material.


eclipse

en-noun

eclipse (countable and uncountable, plural eclipses)

From Old French eclipse, from Latin eclīpsis, from Ancient Greek ἔκλειψις (ékleipsis, “eclipse”), from ἐκλείπω (ekleípō, “I abandon, go missing, vanish”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) and λείπω (leípō, “I leave behind”). Doublet of eclipsis.

der

(ornithology) A seasonal state of plumage in some birds, notably ducks, adopted temporarily after the breeding season and characterised by a dull and scruffy appearance.


NHL

Nenets Herding Laika
Nenets Herding Laika#English

(zoology, cynology) Initialism of Nenets Herding Laika.


homologous

en-adj

homologous (comparative more homologous, superlative most homologous)

more homologous (comparative)
most homologous (superlative)

/həˈmɒləɡəs/

From Late Latin homologus, from Ancient Greek ὁμόλογος (homólogos, “agreeing, of one mind”), from ὁμός (homós, “same”) + λόγος (lógos, “reason, reckoning”). Compare homo- (“same”) and -ous (adjectival suffix). From 1655, in the mathematical sense. See also homolog, homologue.

der

cultural anthropology
cultural anthropology

Showing a degree of correspondence or similarity.

(cultural anthropology, structural anthropology) Playing the same role as seen in another culture, whether by historical connection, psychological archetype, convergent cultural evolution, or otherwise (as may be hypothesized but not known with certainty by current science), as for example with the cryptozoologic concepts of yeti and sasquatch, the use of polite and familiar pronouns, or other similarities.

cultural anthropology; structural anthropology; cultural anthropology; structural anthropology


tentacle

From New Latin tentāculum, from tentō. Doublet of tentaculum.

With one blow of the axe, Captain Nemo cut this formidable tentacle, that slid wriggling down the ladder.

1873, Jules Verne, “The “Devil Fish.”—Terrible Encounter.—Crushed to Death in the Arms of a Monster.—Ned Land saved by the Captain.—“Only Revenge”.”, in [anonymous], transl., Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas; […], James R. Osgood edition, Boston, Mass.: Geo[rge] M[urray] Smith & Co., →OCLC, part II, page 274:

1897, H. G. Wells, The Crystal Egg
The body was small, but fitted with two bunches of prehensile organs, like long tentacles, immediately under the mouth.

1936, H. P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time
Surmounting this head were four slender grey stalks bearing flower-like appendages, whilst from its nether side dangled eight greenish antennae or tentacles.

(zoology) An elongated, boneless, flexible organ or limb of some animals, such as the octopus and squid.


labyrinth

From Middle English laberynt, laberynthe, from Latin labyrinthus, from Ancient Greek λᾰβύρῐνθος (labúrinthos, “a maze”).

(anatomy) A tortuous anatomical structure:

(zoology) An accessory respiratory organ of certain fish.


yu

en-noun

yu (countable and uncountable, plural yu)

A group of slenderer yu also survive from the Shang into the early Chou period, though they are rarer than the other design […] A yu with square body in the Hakuzuru Museum is the finest of these.

1962, William Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, page 34:

(archaeology, countable) An ancient Chinese wine-bucket, often having a decorative cover.


AI

AI (countable and uncountable, plural AIs)

Audio (US)

(linguistics, anthropology) Initialism of atavistic-idiosyncratic.


lavaret

lavaret (countable and uncountable, plural lavarets)

From French lavaret, from Late Latin levaricinus.

Coregonus lavaretus
Coregonus lavaretus#Translingual

(zoology) A European whitefish Coregonus lavaretus, found in the mountain lakes of Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland, and in the archipelago in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland.


acephal

From Ancient Greek ἀκέφαλος (aképhalos, “headless”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + κεφαλή (kephalḗ, “head”). Compare French acéphale, Late Latin acephalus.


acephalocyst

From Ancient Greek ἀκέφαλος (aképhalos, “headless”) + κύστις (kústis, “bladder”).

(zoology) A larval entozoön in the form of a subglobular or oval vesicle, or hydatid, filled with fluid, sometimes found in the tissues of man and the lower animals; -- so called from the absence of a head or visible organs on the vesicle. These cysts are the immature stages of certain tapeworms. Also applied to similar cysts of different origin.


acephalous

en-adj

acephalous (comparative more acephalous, superlative most acephalous)

more acephalous (comparative)
most acephalous (superlative)

From French acéphale, from Ancient Greek ἀκέφαλος (aképhalos, “headless”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + κεφαλή (kephalḗ, “head”). By surface analysis, a- + -cephalous.

(zoology, applied to bivalve mollusks) Without a distinct head.


acerous

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not”) + κέρας (kéras, “horn”).

an acerous mollusk

an acerous insect


mating

The progeny of backcrosses and intercrosses will form some incrosses and some matings of other types.

1981, Henry Foster, The Mouse in Biomedical Research, page 96:

(zoology) Pairing of organisms for copulation.

Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:


sex

en-verb

sex (third-person singular simple present sexes, present participle sexing, simple past and past participle sexed)

sexes (present singular third-person)
sexing (participle present)
sexed (participle past)
sexed (past)

From Middle English sexe (“gender”), from Old French sexe (“genitals; gender”), from Latin sexus (“gender; gender traits; males or females; genitals”), from Proto-Italic *seksus, from Proto-Indo-European *séksus, from *sek- (“to cut, cut off, sever”), thus meaning "section, division" (into male and female).
Usage for women influenced by Middle French le sexe (“women”) (attested in 1580). Usage for third and additional sexes calqued from French troisième sexe, referring to masculine women in 1817 and homosexuals in 1847. First used by Lord Byron and others in English in reference to Catholic clergy. Usage for sexual intercourse first attested in 1899 (in the writings of H. G. Wells).

der

If we sex the cattle, which is the only way to get at their value, we shall have... 400 cows, 200 yearling heifers.

1878 January 19, Spirit of the Times, 659/2:

The ability to sex birds invasively through laparoscopy initially solved that problem, but now it is even easier and less stressful on the birds through testing the DNA of their feathers or blood.

2007, Clive Roots, Domestication, page 75:

Semen usually is sexed at 90% accuracy, and the sexes of calves at birth almost always are in that statistical range if averaged over […]

2013, David J Patterson, Michael T. Smith, Beef Heifer Development, An Issue of Veterinary Clinics: Food Animal Practice,, Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN:

(zoology, transitive) To determine the sex of (an animal).


requiem

From French requin, altered by association with Etymology 1, above.

Any man-eater is called a requiem.

1973, Patrick Buchanan, A Requiem of Sharks:

A large or dangerous shark, specifically, (zoology) a member of the family Carcharhinidae.


kennel

From Middle English kenel, kenell, borrowed from Anglo-Norman *kenil, northern variant of Old French chenil, from Vulgar Latin *canīle, from Latin canis.


function

From Middle French function, from Old French fonction, from Latin functiō (“performance, execution”), from functus, perfect participle of fungor (“to perform, execute, discharge”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewg- (“to enjoy”).

دَالَّة

mathematics: a relation between a set of inputs and a set of permissible outputs

(anthropology) The role of a social practice in the continued existence of the group.


parachute

Borrowed from French parachute, from para- (“protection against”) (as in parasol) and chute (“fall”).

(zoology) A web or fold of skin extending between the legs of gliding mammals, such as the flying squirrel and colugo.


obtuse

en-adj

obtuse (comparative obtuser or more obtuse, superlative obtusest or most obtuse)

obtuser (comparative)
more obtuse (comparative)
obtusest (superlative)
most obtuse (superlative)

clear

antonym(s) of “deadened, muffled, muted”

pointed

antonym(s) of “now chiefly botany, zoology”

From Middle French obtus (“obtuse (geometry); narrow-minded, obtuse; boring, dull, lifeless”), from Latin obtūsus (“blunt, dull; obtuse”), past participle of obtundere, from obtundō (“to batter, beat, strike; to blunt, dull”), from ob- (“against”) (see ob-) + tundō (“to beat, strike; to bruise, crush, pound”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-, from *(s)tew- (“to hit; to push”)). More at obtund.

der

The Herb Pantagruelion hath a little Root somewhat hard and ruff, roundish, terminating in an obtuse and very blunt Point, and having some of its Veins, Strings or Filaments coloured with some spots of white, […]

1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], [Peter Anthony Motteux, transl.], “How Pantagruel Did Put Himself in a Readiness to Go to Sea; and of the Herb Named Pantagruelion”, in The Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and His Sonne Pantagruel [...], volume II, London: Navarre Society, published 1921, →OCLC, book III, pages 57–58:

(now chiefly botany, zoology) Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.

(botany, zoology) Blunt, or rounded at the extremity.

If you put foure Spleets in a Hiue, then cut their backes, where they must leane one against another, to square angles, such as be foure in a circle: if but three, cut them to obtuse angles, such as are three in a circle: (you may readily try them, before you put them in, by Moulds made iust to those formes) and so will they stand close and firme together.

1623, Charles Butler, “Of the Hiues, and the Dressing of Them”, in The Feminine Monarchie: or, The Historie of Bees: Shewing Their Admirable Nature, and Properties, Their Generation, and Colonies, Their Gouernment, Loyaltie, Art, Industrie, Enemies, Warres, Magnanimitie, &c. […], London, →OCLC, chapter 3, section 11, footnote c; republished Mytholmroyd, U.K.: Northern Bee Books, 1985:

More-over, as the Buildings Ambligon / May more receive then Mansions Oxigon / (Because th' acute, and the rect-Angles too, / Stride not so wide as obtuse Angles doe) / So doth the Circle in his Circuit span / More room then any other Figure can.

1641, “The Columnes. The Fourth Part of the Second Day of the II. Weeke”, in Alexander B. Grosart, editor, The Complete Works of Joshua Sylvester: For the First Time Collected and Edited […], Edinburgh Univ. Press, published 1880, page 156, lines 198–203:

Obtuse angles of the through crossing. — The system of the two obtuse-angled points is especially termed the dead-crossing. […] The point itself, less liable to damage than that of the crossing proper, on account of its obtuse form and its position relatively to the wheels, acts the same part towards the tapered portion of the cut rail, as the wing-rail does with respect to the acute-angle of the crossing.

1877, Ch[arles] Couche, “Special Points in the Permanent Way”, in James N. Shoolbred, transl., Permanent Way Rolling Stock and Technical Working of Railways. Followed by an Appendix on Works of Art, volume I, London: Dulau & Co., 37, Soho Square; Paris: Dunod, 49, Quai des Augustins, →OCLC, § XIV (Rail-crossings), paragraph 258, page 316:

If he is standing close beside me I know that our separate axes of vision will meet at an acute angle in the centre of his object, and if we are further apart, at an obtuser angle.

1922, May Sinclair, “Space, Time and Other Consciousnesses”, in The New Idealism, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, section V, pages 255–256:

(geometry, specifically, of an angle) Larger than one, and smaller than two right angles, or more than 90° and less than 180°.

բութ

geometry: larger than 90° but less than 180°

Unless A lies in that part of a semi-infinite strip bounded by AB outside a semi-circle of diameter AB, the triangle is obtuse, so that the probability of getting an obtuse triangle is equal to 1.

2013, Edward J. Barbeau, “Probability and Statistics”, in More Fallacies, Flaws, and Flimflam (Spectrum Series), Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, →ISBN, page 128:

(geometry, by ellipsis) Obtuse-angled, having an obtuse angle.

For we see a Feather or a Rush drawn along the Lip or Cheek, doth tickle; whereas a thing more obtuse, or a touch more hard, doth not.

1670, Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [Francis Bacon], “Century VIII”, in Sylva Sylvarum, or, A Natural History, in Ten Centuries: Whereunto is Newly Added, the History Natural and Experimental of [Life] and Death, or of the Prolongation of Life. […], 9th and last edition, London: William Rawley, →OCLC, paragraph 766, page 161:

See then the quiver broken and decay'd, / In which are kept our arrows! Rusting there / In wild disorder, and unfit for use, / […] Their points obtuse, and feathers drunk with wine!

1817, William Cowper, The Task, London: John Sharpe, page 58:

Yet you do not brighten what would otherwise be dull, impart a keenness to the obtusest point, and diffuse a general lustre?

1932, Ernest Bramah, chapter XV, in The Moon of Much Gladness: Related by Kai Lung, London: Cassell and Co., →OCLC; republished [s.l.]: Read Books, 2013, →ISBN, section IV:


zoo

Clipping of zoological garden or zoological park, now the usual form. See zoology. Senses 5 and 6: clipping of zoophile or zoophilia.

The London Zoo was built in 1828.

The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile. Only the city zoo offers greater species diversity.

2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:

A park where live animals are exhibited.

звіри́нець m (zvirýnecʹ, literally “menagerie”)

The shopping center was a zoo the week before Christmas.

(informal, figuratively) Any place that is wild, crowded, or chaotic.

After his insightful book The Art of Alfred Hitchcock, Spoto published The Dark Side of Genius, a portrayal of the elderly director as a lonely man who was a veritable zoo of desires, suspicions, fears, and addictions (food, drink, romantic infatuation, and filmmaking).

1993, Neil P. Hurley, Soul in Suspense: Hitchcock's Fright and Delight, page xii:

From this point on, an entire zoo of possibilities arose: strange stars, different families of neutron stars, hybrid stars, etc.

2001, Antonino Zichichi, Theory and Experiment Heading for New Physics:

But powerful as the quark model and the electroweak theory were in describing the zoo of subatomic particles, this still left a huge gap.

(informal, figuratively) A large and varied collection of something.

I'm not all that unhappy about being out on an actual patrol, but there's a worried feeling wandering around the back of my mind, not exactly fear, more like a sort of lurking anxiety at being out in the dreaded jungle, the zoo, where the enemy hides.

2013, E. E. "Doc" Murdock, My Vietnam War (page 152)

Zoophiles, or 'zoos,' are sexually and emotionally attracted to animals, as in a sexual orientation.

2013, Mark Hawthorne, Bleating Hearts: The Hidden World of Animal Suffering:

Bestiality or zoophilia—whatever we decide to call it—is one of the most pressing issues for all domesticated animals, […] From the scanty research available, the following picture emerges: the majority of zoos are male, though certainly not all; […]

2016, Jessica Pierce, Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets, page 129:

(slang, by extension, uncountable) Pornographic material depicting actual animals or bestiality.


matrix

From Middle English matris, matrice, matrix, from Old French matrice (“pregnant animal”), or from Latin mātrīx (“dam, womb”), both ultimately from māter (“mother”). Doublet of mother from Indo-European ancestor.
Slang usage coined with the 1999 sci-fi action film The Matrix.

基質

analytical chemistry: sampling environment

(archaeology, paleontology) The sediment surrounding and including the artifacts, features, and other materials at a site.

matriu

archaeology: sediment surrounding and including materials


primary

/ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹi/

Borrowed from Latin prīmārius (“of the first (rank); chief, principal; excellent”), from prīmus (first; whence the English adjective prime) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French primaire, primer, and premier. Doublet of premier.

bor

`Good Lord, look at that swiftlet, it's got two primaries missing from its left wing!'

2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 115:

(ornithology) Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.


punch

(entomology) Any of various riodinid butterflies of the genus Dodona of Asia.


Egyptologist

/ˌid͡ʒɪpˈtɑləd͡ʒɪst/

An Egyptologist's mind immediately turns to the ancient Egyptian counterpart to such an imagined protosactuary: a reed hut that all late Egyptian temples, in their archaizing longing to return to the origins, sought to emulate in stone through the typically Egyptian temple features of inward-sloping walls, torus and corvetto cornice.

2018, Jan Assmann, The Invention of Religion:

A person; one who is skilled in or professes or practices Egyptology.

misirşünas

A person; one who is skilled professes or practices Egyptology


archaeologist

Working around an ancient monument has meant having an archaeologist on site whenever there were excavations.

2024 January 24, Peter Plisner, “Rising to the University challenge”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 61:

Someone who studies or practises archaeology.

arkeolog

someone who studies or practises archaeology


ambisexual

en-adj

ambisexual (comparative more ambisexual, superlative most ambisexual)

more ambisexual (comparative)
most ambisexual (superlative)

From ambi- + -sexual; in modern senses relating to human sexuality, influenced by bisexual.

However, the question must be asked: at which stage in the life-history of an ambisexual (hermaphroditic) fish does sex differentiation take place?

2012, U. Müller, W. Franke, Mechanisms of Gonadal Differentiation in Vertebrates, page 84:


archaeology

en-noun

archaeology (countable and uncountable, plural archaeologies)

From Ancient Greek ἀρχαιολογία (arkhaiología, “antiquarian lore, ancient legends, history”), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “primal, old, ancient”) + λόγος (lógos, “speech, oration, study”). By surface analysis, archaeo- + -logy.

uder

She studied archaeology at Edinburgh University.

The study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains.

The academic subject; in the USA: one of the four sub-disciplines of anthropology.


wildebeest

en-noun

wildebeest (plural wildebeest or wildebeests or (rare) wildebeesten)

wildebeest (plural)
wildebeests (plural)
wildebeesten (plural rare)

→ Japanese: ウィルドビースト (wirudobīsuto)

Borrowed in the early 19th century from early Afrikaans wildebeest, modern wildebees (literally “wild ox”), with influence from beast.

Coordinate term: hartebeest

Dassoud […] stepped forward with a lash composed of the caudal appendages of half a dozen wildebeests.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 3:

Later that morning, they wrapped Ian in a wildebeest skin and buried him near a shepherd tree.

2013, Eleanor Morse, White Dog Fell From the Sky:


climber

From Middle English climber, clymber, clymbare (“one who climbs, climber”), from climben (“to climb; to ascend, fly upward, rise; to slope upwards; to approach God in prayer; to advance; to overcome, triumph; to aspire; to be presumptuous”) + -er, -ere (suffix forming agent nouns). The English word is analysable as climb (verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

affix

Someone or something that climbs (such as a mountain climber).

(ornithology) A bird that climbs, such as a parrot or woodpecker; specifically (archaic), a bird having two toes pointing forward, and two pointing backward, formerly regarded as being from the order Scansores or Zygodactyli (now obsolete as the birds formerly in this order have been reclassified into different orders); a zygodactyl.


radius

Borrowed from Latin radius (“ray”). Doublet of ray.

(zoology) The lighter bone (or fused portion of bone) in the forelimb of an animal.

(entomology) One of the major veins of the insect wing, between the subcosta and the media; the vein running along the costal edge of the discal cell.


apollo

(entomology) Any of several papilionid butterflies of the genus Parnassius, especially Parnassius apollo of Eurasia (also known as the mountain apollo).


needle

From Middle English nedle, from Old English nǣdl, from Proto-West Germanic *nāþlu, from Proto-Germanic *nēþlō, from pre-Germanic *neh₁-tleh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₁- (“to spin, twist”).
Cognates
Cognate with Dutch naald (“needle”), German Nadel (“needle, pin, crochet hook”), German nähen (“sew”), Danish nål (“needle”), Norwegian nål (“needle”), Finnish neula (“needle”). Further related with Welsh nyddu, Latin nēre, Sanskrit स्नायति (snāyati, “wraps up, winds”). Related to snood.

cog

it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God

(entomology) Any of various species of damselfly of the genus Synlestes, endemic to Australia.


warthog

(zoology) A wild pig of the genus Phacochoerus, native to Africa.


rhombus

Learned borrowing from Latin rhombus, from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος (rhómbos, “rhombus, spinning top”). Doublet of rhomb and rhumb.

romb

A parallelogram having all sides of equal length

the greedy Tuberon or Shark arm'd with a double row of venemous teeth pursues them, directed by a little Rhombus, Musculus or pilot-fish that scuds to and fro to bring intelligence [...].

1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, section I:

(zoology, now rare) Any of several flatfishes, including the brill and turbot, once considered part of the genus Rhombus, now in Scophthalmus.

(zoology, archaic) Snails, now in genus Conus or family Conidae.


Mongolian

en-adj

Mongolian (comparative more Mongolian, superlative most Mongolian)

more Mongolian (comparative)
most Mongolian (superlative)

Originally from Mongol + -ian, a translation (1706) of the German mongolisch, mongalisch. Subsequently, from the name of the country of Mongolia + -an.

The Mongolian variety inhabits eastern Asia, Finland, and Lapland in Europe, and includes the Esquimaux of North America.

1828, John Stark, Elements of natural history:

The white (or Caucasian), the yellow (or Mongolian), and the black (or Ethiopian)

1834, Penny cyclopædia of the Society for the diffusion of useful knowledge, volume II:

It was not so much their Mongolian features that impressed everyone...

1990, Louis de Bernières, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts:

(anthropology, dated) Resembling or having some of the characteristic physical features of the mongoloid racial type.


achlamydate

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not”) + χλαμύς (khlamús, “cloak, mantle”).

an achlamydate gastropod


plane

(entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies, of various genera, having a slow gliding flight.

(entomology) The butterfly Bindahara phocides, family Lycaenidae, of Asia and Australasia.


beehive

From Middle English beehyve, equivalent to bee + hive.

An enclosed structure in which some species of honey bees (genus Apis) live and raise their young.


ursine

ursine (comparative more ursine, superlative most ursine)

more ursine (comparative)
most ursine (superlative)

Mid 16th century, from Latin ursīnus, adjectival form of ursus (“bear”) + -ine.

(entomology, of caterpillars) Covered in stiff bristles.


Burmese

(zoology) A medium-sized, short-haired domestic cat breed, originating in Thailand.


minor

From Middle English minor, menor, menour, etc., from Latin minor (“lesser; young; young person”) both directly and via Norman and Middle French menor, menour, etc. Doublet of minus but not mini-. Cognate with minister, minify, Minorca, Menshevik, and possibly minnow. Compare Latin minimum and minuō, Old High German minniro, Cornish minow.

byvak

subject of secondary undergraduate study

(entomology) Any of various noctuid moths in Europe and Asia, chiefly in the Oligia and Mesoligia genera.

(entomology) A leaf-cutter worker ant intermediate in size between a minim and a media.


stalk

From Middle English stalke, stelke, stalk, perhaps from Old English *stealc, *stielc, *stealuc, from Proto-West Germanic *staluk, *stalik, from Proto-Germanic *stalukaz, *stalikaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *stalô, *staluz (“support, stem, stalk”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stand; be stiff; stud, post, trunk, stake, stem, stalk”). Cognate with Old High German *stelh in wazzarstelh (“wagtail”), Danish stilk (“stalk, stem”), Swedish stjälk (“stalk, stem”), Icelandic stilkur (“stalk, stem”).
Related also to Middle English stale (“ladder upright, stalk”), Old English stalu (“wooden upright”), Middle Low German stal, stale (“chair leg”), Old English stela (“stalk”), Dutch steel (“stalk”), German Stiel (“stalk”), Albanian shtalkë (“crossbeam, board used as a door hinge”), Welsh telm (“frond”), Ancient Greek στειλειή (steileiḗ, “beam”), Old Armenian ստեղն (stełn, “trunk, stalk”).

varsi

something resembling the stalk of a plant

A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.

kaula

zoology: stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids

The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.

The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.

tappi

zoology: peduncle of the eyes of decapod


clitoris

en-noun

clitoris (plural clitorises or clitorides)

From post-classical Latin clitoris (16th century), or its source, Koine Greek κλειτορίς (kleitorís), probably from Ancient Greek κλείω (kleíō, “I sheathe, shut”), in reference to its being covered by the labia minora.
The related noun form κλείς (kleís) has a second meaning of "a key, a latch or hook (to close a door)." Wooden pegs were the original keys; a connection also revealed in Latin clavis (“nail”) and claudere (“to shut”) (see close). Some medical sources give a supposed Greek verb κλειτοριάζω (kleitoriázō, “touch or titillate lasciviously, tickle”) literally "to be inclined (toward pleasure)" (compare German Kitzler (“clitoris”, literally “tickler”), related to Greek κλειτύς (kleitús, “shut, closed”), a variant of κλιτύς (klitús, “hillside”), related to κλίνω (klínō, “I slope”), from the same root as κλῖμαξ (klîmax, “ladder”). But many sources take κλειτορίς (kleitorís) literally as Ancient Greek "little hill".

cog

genital tubercle - embryological precursor

(zoology) A similar erectile sexual organ present in the cloacas of female amniotes.


annual

First attested around 1382, borrowed from Late Latin annuālem, annuālis, related to Latin annālis, adjective form of annus (“year”). Used to categorize plants since 1710.

(entomology) Living or lasting just one season or year, as certain insects or insect colonies.


stimulus

Borrowed from Latin stimulus (“goad, prick”).

bor+

Many plants, like many animals, are furnished with arms for their protection; these are either aculei, prickles […]; or stimuli, stings, as in the nettles, which are armed with a venomous fluid for the annoyance of naked animals.

1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 15:

(botany, entomology) A stinging part on the body of a plant or insect.


honeycomb

en-noun

honeycomb (countable and uncountable, plural honeycombs)

Alhambra
Oxford English Dictionary
United States Army

The noun is derived from Middle English hony comb, from Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (“honey”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks (“honey”)) + camb (“comb”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“peg; tooth; row of teeth”)). The English word is analysable as honey + comb. The Oxford English Dictionary posits that the arrangement of several plates of wax “hanging parallel to each other from the roof of the hive suggests a comb with its teeth”.
The verb is derived from the noun.

kennosto

something resembling honeycomb in having numerous cells or small holes

hunaja

something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; something desirable or pleasant

A rudimentall reſemblance hereof there is in the cruciated and rugged folds of the Reticulum, or Net-like Ventricle of ruminating horned animals, vvhich is the ſecond in order, and culinarily called the Honey-comb.

[1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 149:

Of the four ſtomachs vvith vvhich ruminant animals are furniſhed, the firſt is called the paunch, vvhich receives the food after it has been ſlightly chevved; the ſecond is called the honeycomb, and is properly nothing more than a continuation of the former; […]

[1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Ruminating Animals”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 3:

honeycomb stomach
honeycomb stomach#English

(countable, by extension) Something resembling honeycomb (sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.

(countable, zoology) Short for honeycomb stomach (“the reticulum or second compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant”).


major

From Middle English major, from Latin maior, comparative of magnus (“great, large; noble, important”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs (“greater”), comparative of *meǵh₂- (“great”). Compare West Frisian majoar (“major”), Dutch majoor (“major”), French majeur. Doublet of mayor.

pääaineopiskelija

student specializing in a specified subject

(entomology) A large leaf-cutter ant that acts as a soldier, defending the nest.


guest

From Middle English gest, from Old Norse gestr, which replaced or was merged with Old English ġiest, both from Proto-Germanic *gastiz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstis (“stranger, guest, host, someone with whom one has reciprocal duties of hospitality”). Cognate with German Gast (“guest”), Norwegian gjest (“guest”). Doublet of host, from Latin.

der

(zoology) Any insect that lives in the nest of another without compulsion and usually not as a parasite.


femur

(entomology) The middle segment of the leg of an insect, between the trochanter and the tibia.

(arachnology) A segment of the leg of an arachnid.


series

en-noun

series (plural series or (obsolete) serieses)

series (plural)
serieses (obsolete plural)

→ Japanese: シリーズ (shirīzu)

→ Korean: 시리즈 (sirijeu)

→ Burmese: စီးရီး (ci:ri:)

Attested from the 1610s; borrowed from Latin seriēs, from serere (“to join together, bind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, put together, to line up”). Related to desert, insert, sermon, and sorcerer.

مُتَسَلْسِلَة

in analysis: sum of the terms of a sequence


hawk

Sranan Tongo: aka

From Middle English hauk, hauke, hawke, havek, from Old English hafoc (“hawk”), from Proto-West Germanic *habuk, from Proto-Germanic *habukaz, controversially derived from a Proto-Indo-European *kopuǵos, perhaps ultimately derived from *keh₂p- (“seize”).
See also West Frisian hauk, German Low German Haavke, Dutch havik, German Habicht, Swedish hök, Danish høg, Norwegian Bokmål hauk, Norwegian Nynorsk hauk, Faroese heykur, Icelandic haukur, Finnish haukka, Estonian haugas; also Latin capys, capus (“bird of prey”), Albanian gabonjë, shkabë (“eagle”), Russian ко́бец (kóbec, “falcon”), Polish kobuz (“Eurasian Hobby”)).

(entomology) Any of various species of dragonfly of the genera Apocordulia and Austrocordulia, endemic to Australia.


pirate

→ Niuean: pairēti

From Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta, from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".

(ornithology) A bird which practises kleptoparasitism.


chupacabras

From Spanish chupa (“it sucks”) + cabras (“goats”).

(cryptozoology) A legendary creature in the folklore of parts of the Americas dating from the 1990s, supposed to attack and drink the blood of livestock, especially goats.


eyrie

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

From Middle English eire, aire, from Old French aire or Medieval Latin aeria. Old French aire, in the sense of an eagle's nest, may have derived from Latin ager, or may less likely be related to the other senses, ultimately from Latin ārea.

Any high and remote but commanding place.

ørnerede

any high and remote but commanding place


lip

en-noun

lip (countable and uncountable, plural lips)

From Middle English lippe, from Old English lippa, lippe (“lip”), from Proto-West Germanic *lippjō (“lip”), from Proto-Germanic *lepô, from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely, droop, sag”).
Cognate with West Frisian lippe (“lip”), Dutch lip (“lip”), German Lippe and Lefze (“lip”), Swedish läpp (“lip”), Norwegian leppe (“lip”),
Danish læbe (“lip”),
Latin labium (“lip”).

der

there's many a slip between the cup and the lip

there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip

(zoology) One of the edges of the aperture of a univalve shell.


vane

From Middle English vane, Southern Middle English variant of fane, from Old English fana (“cloth, banner, flag”), from Proto-West Germanic *fanō, from Proto-Germanic *fanô, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂n- (“something woven; weave; tissue; fabric; cloth”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Foone (“flag, banner”), Dutch vaan (“banner, flag”), German Low German Fahn (“flag”), German Fahne. Doublet of obsolete fane (“weathercock; banner”) and fanon.

cog

Meronym: barb

(ornithology) The flattened, web-like part of a feather, consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the shaft.

bandera

ornithology: flattened web-like part of a feather


drey

(Australia) A possum’s nest, built of twigs and leaves in a tree.


dray

Alternative spelling of drey (“squirrel's nest”)


anal

en-adj

anal (comparative more anal, superlative most anal)

more anal (comparative)
most anal (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin ānālis.
Psychological sense shortened from anal-retentive.

(entomology, of a vein) Proximate to the thorax.


sheepfold

Inherited from Middle English shepefald, perhaps from Late Old English sċēapa falde (literally “sheep's fold”), equivalent to sheep + fold.

inh

If civilized life had covered over the ancient verities, Dumuzi learns in his tragic death that the sheepfold is still there to reclaim him.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 180:


corporal

From Middle English corporal, corporall, corporel, corporell, from Old French corporal (French corporel), from Latin corporālis, from Latin corpus (“body”); compare corporeal.

The smaller 9 9 have less elongated fins, drabber corporal colors, and more transparent fins.

1998, Rüdiger Riehl, Aquarium Atlas, volume 3, page 572:

(zoology) Pertaining to the body (the thorax and abdomen), as distinguished from the head, limbs and wings, etc.


incubus

From Late Latin incubus, from Latin incubō (“nightmare, one who lies down on the sleeper”), from incubō (“to lie upon, to hatch”, from in- (“on”) + cubō (“to lie down”)).

der

(entomology) One of various of parasitic insects, especially subfamily Aphidiinae.


wasp

Sranan Tongo: waswasi (reduplicated)

From Middle English wasp, waspe, waps, from Old English wæsp, wæps (“wasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *wapsu, from Proto-Germanic *wapsō, from Proto-Indo-European *wóps-eh₂ (“wasp”), from *webʰ- (“weave”) (referring to the insect's woven nests).
Compare Dutch wesp, German Wespe, Danish hveps. Metathesis of s and p was both a process of some generality within English (compare e.g. grasp from Middle English grapsen, and—affecting other plosives—ascian ~ acsian (“to ask”)) and common in the reflexes of *wóps-eh₂ (“wasp”) in particular, as the aforementioned Germanic cognates (and non-Germanic cognates like Latin vespa) evince.

sand wasp

genus Ammophila spp., in family Sphecidae, or tribe Bembicini, in family Crabronidae

en:any insect of suborder Apocrita except an ant

(entomology) Any of the members of suborder Apocrita, excepting the ants (family Formicidae) and bees (clade Anthophila).

Any of the members of the family Vespidae.


Aberdonian

From Medieval Latin Aberdonia (“Aberdeen”) + -an.

(British English, Scotland, ethnography) A citizen or inhabitant of, or person born in, Aberdeen, NE Scotland.


labium

Learned borrowing from Latin labium (“a lip”). Doublet of lip.

lbor

(entomology) A lower mouthpart of an insect that is formed by the second pair of maxillae united in the middle line.

(zoology) A liplike part of various invertebrates.


pluma

Borrowed from Latin plūma. Doublet of plume.


jelly

en-noun

jelly (countable and uncountable, plural jellies)

→ Chickasaw: cheliꞌ, jellꞌ

→ Welsh: jeli, sieli

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *gel-
Latin gelū
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
Proto-Italic *-āō
Latin -ō
Latin gelō
Proto-Italic *-ātos
Latin -ātus
Latin -āta
Early Medieval Latin gelātabor.
Old French geleebor.
Middle English gele
English jellyFrom Middle English gele, borrowed from Old French gelee, borrowed from Early Medieval Latin gelāta, from Latin gelō + -āta. Doublet of gelee.

etymon

Species of the phylum Cnidaria – the classic jelly – have existed in something close to their current form for at least 565 million years; Ctenophora, the comb jellies, are not much younger.

2014, Theo Tait, ‘Water-Borne Zombies’, London Review of Books, volume 36, number 5:


nympha

From Latin nympha, from Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride, nymph”). Doublet of nymph.


lingua

Unadapted borrowing from Latin lingua (“the tongue”). Doublet of langue and tongue.

ubor

(entomology) A median process of the labium, at the underside of the mouth in insects, and serving as a tongue.


nymph

From Middle English nimphe, from Old English nymphē and Old French nimphe, both from Latin nympha (“nymph, bride”), from Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride”). Doublet of nympha.

(entomology) The larva of certain insects.

(entomology) Any of various butterflies of the family Nymphalidae.


luna

Borrowed from Latin lūna (“moon; month; crescent”).

“Gee,” whispered Oliver. He sat there staring. “A luna! I never thought I’d see a real luna!”

1944, Elizabeth Enright, Then There Were Five, Farrar & Rinehart, page 80:

On the previous evening we had discovered with delight a luna with the fabulous moons, one on each pale green wing.

1969, Sterling North, “An Introduction to Butterflies and Moths”, in Boys’ Life, May 1969 issue, Boy Scouts of America, page 64

Spray BT on your young oak to protect against gypsy moths, and you wipe out future lunas, cecropias, and everything else on the leaves, along with the pests.

2010, Sally Roth (contributor), in Judy Pray (compiler), Garden Wisdom & Know-How: Everything You Need to Know to Plant, Grow, and Harvest, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., page 348

(entomology) A luna moth: a member of species Actias luna.


culture

en-noun

culture (countable and uncountable, plural cultures)

From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, to grow, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

der

(anthropology) Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.

ܡܲܪܕܘܼܬܵܐ

anthropology: any knowledge passed from one generation to the next

archaeological culture
archaeological culture#English

(archaeology) Short for archaeological culture (“recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society”).


marine

en-adj

marine (comparative more marine, superlative most marine)

more marine (comparative)
most marine (superlative)

Recorded since c.1420 as Middle English marin, borrowed from Middle French marin, from Old French, from Latin marinus (“of the sea”), itself from mare (“sea”), from Proto-Indo-European *móri (“body of water, lake”) (cognate with Old English mere (“sea, lake, pool, pond”), Dutch meer, German Meer, all from Proto-Germanic *mari). The modern pronunciation is presumably due to the influence of modern French marine, feminine singular of marin.

cog

(zoology) Inhabiting the high seas; oceanic; pelagic. (distinguished from maritime or littoral)


lire

From Old Norse líri. Cognate with Norwegian lira.

(UK dialectal, Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, ornithology) The Manx shearwater (bird).


cuticle

From Middle French cuticule, from Latin cuticula (“cuticle, skin”).

(zoology, botany) A noncellular protective covering outside the epidermis of many invertebrates and plants.


tripod

en-verb

tripod (third-person singular simple present tripods, present participle tripoding, simple past and past participle tripoded)

tripods (present singular third-person)
tripoding (participle present)
tripoded (participle past)
tripoded (past)

PIE word
 *tréyes
Borrowed from Latin tripūs, tripodis, from Ancient Greek τρίπους (trípous); equivalent to tri- + -pod. Doublet of tripus and teapoy.

(entomology, intransitive) Of a lizard, to raise its body upright bracing itself on hind legs and tail.


admiral

→ Cebuano: admiral

desctree

→ German: Admiral
→ Czech: admirál
Hungarian: admirális
→ Polish: admirał
→ Slovene: admirȃl
→ Ukrainian: адміра́л (admirál)

Swahili: admirali

→ Tagalog: ádmirál

Amir_al-umara#In_Norman_Sicily
Chester Nimitz
Eighth Crusade
Florent de Varennes
George of Antioch
Gervase Alard
Horatio Nelson
Louis IX
Nelson's Column
Norman Sicily
admiral
admiral of France

From Middle English admiral etc., from Anglo-Norman and Old French admiral etc., from Medieval Latin admiralis, admirallus, and admiralius, from irregular modification of amiralis etc. under the influence of the prefix ad- and particularly admiror (“to admire, respect”), from Arabic أَمِير (ʔamīr, “commander”) + -alis (“-al”). The ending is frequently but mistakenly folk etymologized to derive from the article ال (al-), particularly in Arabic أَمِير اَلبَحْر (ʔamīr al-baḥr, “commander of the sea”), first attested as a Fatimid office, or in Arabic أَمِير الْمُؤْمِنِين (ʔamīr al-muʔminīn, “Commander of the Believers, caliph”). It seems instead to have been borrowed from modification of only the first term in Arabic أَمِير الْأُمَرَاء (ʔamīr al-ʔumarāʔ, “emir of emirs, commander-in-chief”) as used as a title for important commanders in Norman Sicily in the mid-12th century. First attested as an English rank in reference to Gervase Alard of Winchelsea as "admiral of the fleet of the Cinque Ports". Doublet of emir, amir, Amir, and amira.
Etymology tree
Medieval Latin admiralisder.
Anglo-Norman admiralbor.
Middle English admiral
English admiral

cog

أَمِير اَلبَحْر

أَمِير الْمُؤْمِنِين

der

أَمِير الْأُمَرَاء

etymon

(zoology) Any of several species of nymphalid butterflies of the genera Kaniska, Limenitis and Vanessa.

(conchology) The shell of the Conus ammiralis; the cone shells of various other species displaying similarly intricate banding.


burrow

en-verb

burrow (third-person singular simple present burrows, present participle burrowing, simple past and past participle burrowed)

burrows (present singular third-person)
burrowing (participle present)
burrowed (participle past)
burrowed (past)

From Middle English borowe, borewe, borwȝ, burȝe, burh, burye (“refuge for an animal, lair, burrow”), apparently a variant of Middle English burgh (“fortified dwelling, stronghold, refuge”) (see borough) and thus from Old English burh, from Proto-West Germanic *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“stronghold, city”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“high”), but this sense is not known in Old English burh. Compare, however, Dutch cognate burcht, which has a similar sense.
It may be related to bury (“to dig”), in which case it would be derived from Proto-Indo-European *bʰergʰ- (“to protect, defend, save, preserve”).

der

The young girl burrowed into the bed.

(intransitive) (with adverbial of direction) to move underneath or press up against in search of safety or comfort


callus

Borrowed from Latin callum (“hard skin”).

(entomology) A shining area on the frons of many species of Tabanomorpha (horse flies and relatives).


sessile

From Latin sessilis (“sitting”), from sessus, perfect passive participle of verb sedeō (“to sit”), + adjective suffix -ilis. Compare session.

a sessile oyster

(zoology) Permanently attached to a substrate; not free to move about.


den

From Middle English den, from Old English denn (“den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *dani (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”). Cognate with Scots den (“den, lair”), Middle Dutch denne (“burrow, den, cave, attic”), Dutch den (“ship's deck, threshing-floor, mountain floor”), Middle Low German denne, danne (“threshing-floor, small dale”), German Tenne (“threshing-floor, barn for threshing”).

cog

a den of robbers

Daniel was put into the lions’ den.

Wiktionary appendix of animal terms, including their homes

A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.

Our little girls love using bedsheets and other stuff around the house to make dens in the living room and pretending they're on adventures.

Synonym of fort (“structure improvised from furniture, etc. for playing games.”)

fort

A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together.

جُحْر

for smaller carnivores, rodents and reptiles


den

en-verb

den (third-person singular simple present dens, present participle denning, simple past and past participle denned)

dens (present singular third-person)
denning (participle present)
denned (participle past)
denned (past)

Although present in virtually all habitats, it preferred to den in caves, so its distribution, especially in cold, northern areas, may have been limited to limestone and other rocky regions where caves form.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 203:

“Denning” – behaviour around making dens – has changed and bears are swimming long distances, but, says Aars, there is still enough sea ice in the spring for the bears to hunt successfully.

2023 August 30, Patrick Greenfield, “Why it may be time to stop using the polar bear as a symbol of the climate crisis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(intransitive, zoology) Of an animal, to use as a den; to take up residence in.


den

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

Pronunciation spelling of then, representing AAVE, Bermuda English.


trench

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenche. Doublet of tranche and traunch.

(archaeology) A pit, usually rectangular with smooth walls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation.


trench

trench (third-person singular simple present trenches, present participle trenching, simple past and past participle trenched)

trenches (present singular third-person)
trenching (participle present)
trenched (participle past)
trenched (past)

(archaeology) To excavate an elongated and often narrow pit.


anthropology

/ˌænθɹəˈpɒləd͡ʒi/

/ˌænθɹəˈpɑləd͡ʒi/

From New Latin anthropologia, from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos, “human, mankind”) + -λογία (-logía). By surface analysis, anthropo- + -logy.

der

According to anthropology, there are six basic patterns of kinship terminology or kin naming systems.

As another man has an ardour for art or music, or natural science, Mr. Pen said that anthropology was his favourite pursuit; and had his eyes always eagerly open to its infinite varieties and beauties: contemplating with an unfailing delight all specimens of it in all places to which he resorted […]

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 47, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

Whilst History endeavours to represent the various phases of civilized life to the fullest extent, the interest of Anthropology rests chiefly upon the general features and the greatest differences in the various forms of human life; for as regards the latter science, these diversities form the most important and characteristic part, and we should have but a one-sided conception of man, if our notions of him were only derived from the history of civilization without taking into consieration the resquisite supplement arising from the study of uncivilized nations, and of man in a primative state.

1863, J. Frederick Collingwood (ed), Introduction to Anthropology (from Theodor Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, vol I (1959)) pp 8-9

The scientific study of humans, systematically describing the ethnographic, linguistic, archaeological, and evolutionary dimensions of humanity using a holistic methodological framework.


infanticide

en-noun

infanticide (countable and uncountable, plural infanticides)

(zoology) The killing of a young, immature animal by a mature adult of the same species.


anosmic

en-adj

anosmic (comparative more anosmic, superlative most anosmic)

more anosmic (comparative)
most anosmic (superlative)

The whales, porpoises and seals have however a reason that man does not possess for being anosmic. For they, in common with all the living world of earth and air, left the sea millions of years ago and, as they developed lungs with which to breathe, so did they modify their organs of smell to receive sensations from air, not water. Eons later, in comparatively recent geologic times, when these few mammals left the land and returned to the water, this differentiation for air-smelling had gone too far. Their senses of smell failed to react to water-borne stimuli. […] It is worth discussing these anosmic animals, and what caused them to lose the sense of smell.

1960, James Knox Millen, “chapter II”, in Your Nose Knows: A Study of the Sense of Smell, Los Angeles, Calif.: Cunningham Press, →OCLC, page 13:

Even in the totally anosmic whale without an olfactory nerve, bulb, or tract, it is noteworthy that the third-order neurons of the olfactory system still persist.

1978, R. Bruce Masterton, K. K. Glendenning, “Phylogeny of the Vertebrate Sensory Systems”, in R. Bruce Masterton, editor, Sensory Integration (Handbook of Behavioral Neurobiology; 1), New York, N.Y.: Plenum Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 5:

Because dolphins are regarded as anosmic, because the animals usually swallow fish and other food whole without mastication, and because, until recently, taste buds had not been found in the tongue of several dolphin species, some cetologists have doubted that the animals possess the sense of taste.

1990, Sam H. Ridgway, “The Central Nervous System of the Bottlenose Dolphin”, in Stephen Leatherwood, Randall R. Reeves, editors, The Bottlenose Dolphin, San Diego, Calif., London: Academic Press, →ISBN, page 85:

(zoology) Lacking olfactory organs; anosmatic.


anthropomorphic

/ˌænθɹəʊpəʊˈmɔːfɪk/

/ˌænθɹəpəˈmɔɹfɪk/

The mystic is one to whom the unitive, pantheistic, or at least the panentheistic, aspects of the divinity are as congenial as the deistic, polytheistic, and anthropomorphic aspects are to the institutional mind.

1909, “The Quarterly Review”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 124:

(of anything non-human) Having attributes or characteristics of a human being.


uterus

→ Czech: uterus

→ Malay: uterus

→ Swahili: uterasi

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *úd
Proto-Indo-European *-teros
Proto-Indo-European *úderos
Latin uterusder.
English uterus
From Latin uterus (“womb, belly”), from Proto-Indo-European *úderos (“abdomen, stomach”), from *úd (“out, outward”) + *-eros (contrastive suffix).

af

Müllerian duct - embryological precursor

(anatomy) A reproductive organ of therian mammals in which the young are conceived and develop until birth.

(zoology) A similar part in some non-mammals.


commodore

→ Italian: commodoro

→ Portuguese: comodoro

→ Spanish: comodoro

Borrowed from Dutch kommandeur, from Middle French commandeur. See command, compare commend (a doublet), and mandate.

(entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genus Parasarpa.


zooplankton

en-noun

zooplankton (countable and uncountable, plural zooplanktons or zooplankton)

zooplanktons (plural)
zooplankton (plural)

(zoology) Free-floating small protozoa, crustaceans (such as krill), etc. and the eggs and larvae from larger animals.

dyreplankton

free-floating small protozoa or crustaceans


septum

Borrowed from Latin sēptum (“enclosure, wall, fence”).

(biology) A wall separating two cavities; a partition.

(zoology) One of the radial calcareous plates of a coral.

väliseinä

(zoology) radial calcareous plate of a coral

(zoology) One of the transverse partitions dividing the shell of a mollusk, or of a rhizopod, into several chambers.

väliseinä

(zoology) transverse partition dividing the shell chambers of a mollusc or rhizopod

(zoology) One of the transverse partitions dividing the body cavity of an annelid.

väliseinä

(zoology) transverse partition dividing the body cavity of an annelid


bunyip

The bunyip here was considered to have a magical power over humans, causing them considerable misfortune. Places where there were many eels tended to be where bunyips lived, as this was their food. On one occasion, Aboriginal people claimed that a bunyip lured a woman to her death by distracting her with a large catch of eels. It was considered extremely bad luck to kill or injure a bunyip.

2007, Janet Parker, Julie Stanton, editors, Mythology: Myths, Legends and Fantasies, page 387:

According to the stories, the Bunyip comes in many different shapes and sizes—some are covered in feathers, while others have scales like a crocodile. Most Aboriginal drawings show the Bunyip with a tail like a horse, and flippers and tusks like a walrus.

2008, Oliver Ho, Mysteries Unwrapped: Mutants & Monsters, page 26:

One particularly fierce bunyip described by Smith was well known as a man-eater throughout south Australia.

2009, David D. Gilmore, Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors, page 150:

(Australia, cryptozoology, mythology) A mythical Australian monster, said to inhabit swamps and lagoons.


shark

From Middle English shark (used by Thomas Beckington in 1442 to refer to a kind of fish), of uncertain origin. Most likely from a semantic extension of the German-derived shark (“scoundrel”), see below. The fish was originally called a dogfish or haye in English and Middle English.
alternative theories
Some older dictionaries derived the word from Latin c(h)archarias, c(h)acharus (from Ancient Greek), but admit that "the requisite [Old French] forms intermediate between E. shark and L. carcharus are not found, and it is not certain that the name [shark] was orig. applied to the fish; it may have been first used of a greedy man".
Other older authorities speculated that the word might derive from Yucatec Maya xok (“fish”) (/ʃok/), as John Hawkins brought a specimen from the area where Mayan was spoken to England in the 1560s. However, the 1442 use rules out a New World origin for the word.

shock (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)

The straunge fishe is in length xvij. foote and iij. foote broad, and in compas about the bodie vj. foote; and is round snowted, short headdid, hauing iij. rankes of teeth on either iawe, …. Also it hath v. gills of eache side of the head, shoing white. Ther is no proper name for it that I know, but that sertayne men of Captayne Haukinses doth call it a sharke.

1569, The true discripcion of this marueilous straunge Fishe, whiche was taken on Thursday was sennight, the xvi. day of June, this present month, in the yeare of our Lord God, M.D.lxix., a broadside printed in London, the second earliest known use of the term; reprinted in A Collection of Seventy-Nine Black-Letter Ballads and Broadsides: printed in the reigh of Queen Elizabeth, between the years 1559 and 1597 in 1867

He said he had spoken to a woman who was kayaking off Catalina Island, California, in 2008 when a shark slammed her kayak from underneath and sent her flying into the air. She then landed on the back of the shark, Collier said. "At that point the shark started to swim out to sea, so she jumped off its back," Collier said.

2011 October 13, AP, “Man 'surfs' great white shark”, in The Guardian:

(ichthyology) A scaleless, predatory fish of the superorder Selachimorpha, with a cartilaginous skeleton and 5 to 7 gill slits on each side of its head.


lunate

From Latin lūnātus (“crescent-shaped”), from lūna (“moon”).

(archaeology) A small stone artifact, probably an arrowhead, with a blunt straight edge and a sharpened, crescent-shaped back, especially characteristic of the Mesolithic Period


YBP

Baked clay ornaments and other objects dating from 28,000 YBP have been discovered in Eastern Europe, […]

2022, Cherl-Ho Lee, Korean Food and Foodways: The Root of Health Functional Food, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 23:

(archaeology, geology, paleontology) Initialism of years before present.


gland

Late 17th century borrowing from French glande, alteration of Old French glandre, from Latin glandulae (“throat glands, tonsils”), plural of glandula (“a little acorn”), from glāns (“an acorn”) + -ula (diminutive nominal suffix).

gjendër

organ that synthesizes and secretes substance

Meronyms: endocrine gland, exocrine gland

(zoology) A specialized cell, group of cells, or organ of endothelial origin in the human or animal body that synthesizes a chemical substance, such as hormones or breast milk, and releases it, often into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland).

(anatomy) A structure resembling a gland, especially a lymph node.


MBD

en-noun

MBD (countable and uncountable, plural MBDs)

Four kinds of first-cousin marriages are possible. A man could marry (1) his father's brother's daughter (FBD), (2) his mother's brother's daughter (MBD), (3) his father's sister's daughter (FZD), or (4) his mother's sister's daughter[…]

2015 January 4, Bobbi S. Low, Why Sex Matters: A Darwinian Look at Human Behavior - Revised Edition, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 63:

(anthropology) Initialism of mother's brother's daughter.


scold

en-verb

scold (third-person singular simple present scolds, present participle scolding, simple past and past participle scolded)

scolds (present singular third-person)
scolding (participle present)
scolded (participle past)
scolded (past)

The noun is from Middle English scold(e), skald(e), first attested in the 12th or 13th century (as scold, scolde, skolde, skald). The verb is from Middle English scolden, first attested in the late 1300s. Most dictionaries derive the verb from the noun and say the noun is probably from Old Norse skald (“poet”) (cognate with Icelandic skáld (“poet, scop”)), as skalds sometimes wrote insulting poems, though another view is that the Norse and English words are cognate to each other and to Old High German skeltan, Old Dutch skeldan, all inherited from Proto-Germanic *skeldaną (“scold”).

(ornithology) Of birds, to make harsh vocalisations in aggression.


trigon

en-noun

trigon (countable and uncountable, plural trigons)

From Ancient Greek τρίγωνον (trígōnon, “triangle”), neuter substantive of τρίγωνος (trígōnos, “three-sided”), from τρεῖς (treîs, “three”) + γωνία (gōnía, “bend, angle”). Equivalent to tri- + -gon. Doublet of trigone and trigonon.

der

(countable, zoology) The cutting region of the crown of an upper molar, usually the anterior part.


minim

(zoology) The smallest kind of worker in a leaf-cutter ant colony.


glider

From Middle English glider, glydare, equivalent to glide + -er.

(entomology) Any of various species of dragonfly that glide on out-held wings while flying, such as the common glider, Tramea loewii, of Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, and the Pacific.


anastylosis

From Ancient Greek αναστήλωσις (anastḗlōsis).

(archaeology) The reassembly of ruined monuments or other artifacts from remaining fragments in an archeologically responsible way (with use of modern materials when needed).


loma

(zoology) A lobe, flap or fringe bordering the toe of a bird.


epi-

From Ancient Greek ἐπί (epí, “on top of”).

epiparasitism is behaviour of epibiotic parasites, episymbiont is an epibiotic symbiont, episymbiotic is of or relating to an epibiotic symbiotic relationship

(zoology) Epibiotic: an organism that lives on another organism.


potsherd

From Middle English pot-sherd, pot-schord, pot scherd, pot scarth, from Middle English pot, pote, potte (“a container, pot, vessel; especially an earthenware vessel”) (from late Old English pot, pott (“a pot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a type of vessel”)) + Middle English sherd (“piece of fired clay or broken earthenware; potsherd”) (from Old English sceard (“a shard, sherd”), from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“a nick, notch”)); equivalent to pot + sherd (“shard”).

inh

But this madde Amalecke, / Lyke to a Mamelek, / He regardeth lordes / No more than potshordes; […]

a. 1530 (date written), John Skelton, “Here after Foloweth a Lytell Boke, whiche hath to Name Why Come Ye Nat to Courte? […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume II, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 41, lines 475–476:

[W]ho can deny but that the rod of Gods mouth is indeed Virga virtutis, a rod of strength, an iron rod, able to deale with all humane reaſonings, as a hammer with a potſherd, which though to the hand of a man it may feele as hard as a rocke, yet is too brittle to endure the blow of an iron rod?

1632, Edward Reynoldes [i.e., Edward Reynolds], “Verse 2”, in An Explication of the Hvndreth and Tenth Psalme: […], London: Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke, […], →OCLC, page 149:

Job took a potſherd to ſcrape himself, becauſe his hands were as full of boils as his body: This is the caſe of thy corrupt ſoul: not to be recovered but by Jeſus Chriſ, whoſe ſtrength was dried up like a potſherd, Pſal[ms] xxii. 15.

1720, [Thomas Boston], “State II, Namely, The State of Nature, or of Entire Deprivation”, in Human Nature in Its Four-fold State: […], Edinburgh: Printed by Mr. James McEuen and Company, […]; Michael Boston, editor, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State, […], new edition, Falkirk, Stirlingshire: Printed and sold by Patrick Mair, 1784, →OCLC, head I (The Sinfulness of Man’s Natural State), page 85:

[I]n the case of pottery, it [epigraphy] is usually taken to include graffiti scratched with a sharp point, and even painted inscriptions which are made before firing as part of the design of a vase, but not written documents (ostraka), in which pot-sherds are merely used as a material to write on instead of papyrus.

1916, E. S. Roberts, E[rnest] A[rthur] Gardner, “Criticism and Interpretation [VIII. 2. Epigraphy.]”, in Leonard Whibley, editor, A Companion to Greek Studies: Edited for the Syndics of the University Press, 3rd revised and enlarged edition, Cambridge: At the University Press, →OCLC, section 737 (Definition and Scope), page 687:

Speiser, who made excavations on Vao Island found prehistoric potsherds at a depth of 10 inches, and on the surface of the ground also.

1950, Alphonse Riesenfeld, “Megalithic Monuments and Megalithic Culture”, in The Megalithic Culture of Melanesia, Leiden: E. J. Brill, →OCLC, page 115:

I have been asked about the single most important artifact that I have seen. It is a single broken piece of pottery no bigger than a couple of inches, but its interpretation makes it one of the most significant artifacts in Jewish history. It is an inscribed potshard (a fragment of pottery) from Masada (in Israel) marked with the name "ben Yair." […] While it remains a single potshard marked in ink, it is a powerful symbol of what motivates archaeologists in the field: a simple object that signifies an entire historical event.

2012, Richard A. Freund, Digging through History: Archaeology and Religion from Atlantis to the Holocaust, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 18:

(often archaeology) A piece of ceramic from pottery, often found on an archaeological site.


cyclops

en-noun

cyclops (plural cyclops or cyclopes or cyclopses)

cyclops (plural)
cyclopes (plural)
cyclopses (plural)

Borrowed from Latin cyclōps, from Ancient Greek Κύκλωψ (Kúklōps, “Cyclops”), q.v.

der

(zoology) Any copepod in the genus Cyclops.


PIE

(linguistics, anthropology, etc.) Initialism of Proto-Indo-European.


roost

From Middle English roste (“chicken's roost; perch”), from Old English hrōst (“wooden framework of a roof; roost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrōst, from Proto-Germanic *hrōstaz (“wooden framework; grill”); see *raustijan.
Cognate with Dutch roest (“roost”), German Low German Rust (“roost”), German Rost (“grate; gridiron; grill”).

inh

the highest branch is not the safest roost

He clapp'd his wings upon his roost.

1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

The place where a bird sleeps (usually its nest or a branch).

(Scotland) The open cross-joists or inner roof of a cottage or living space.


roost

en-verb

roost (third-person singular simple present roosts, present participle roosting, simple past and past participle roosted)

roosts (present singular third-person)
roosting (participle present)
roosted (participle past)
roosted (past)


clavis

From Latin clāvis (“a key”). Doublet of clave and clef.

Iron clavis, the solid web-shaped at the edges to fit the wards in the lock, and having a pointed broach and a kite-formed looped haft.

1873, “Proceedings of the Association”, in Journal of the British Archaeological Association, volume 29, April 9th, page 202:


Loch Ness monster

(cryptozoology) A large creature believed by some to inhabit Loch Ness in Scotland. It is said to have a long neck and one or more humps that protrude from the water.


Nessie

That flurry of activity had been set off by a magisterial book (Whyte, 1957), reinforced by Dinsdale’s filming of a Nessie (Dinsdale, 1961) and culminating in successful underwater photography (Rines et al., 1976) by the Academy of Applied Science (AAS). Nessies were assigned the taxonomic identity Nessiteras rhombopteryx (Anonymous, 1975).

2002, Henry H. B. Auer, “The Case for the Loch Ness 'Monster': The Scientific Evidence”, in Journal of Scientific Exploration, volume 16, number 2, pages 225–246:

And if it comes down to just one vote, we all know who will be called upon to break that tie. Go with your gut, Nessie. You do you, Nessie, you do you.

2014, Tim Carvell [et al.], “Scottish Independence”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 17, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:

(informal, cryptozoology) The Loch Ness monster.


duet

duet (third-person singular simple present duets, present participle duetting or dueting, simple past and past participle duetted or dueted)

duets (present singular third-person)
duetting (participle present)
dueting (participle present)
duetted (participle past)
duetted (past)
dueted (participle past)
dueted (past)

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Italian duetto (“short musical composition for two voices”), diminutive of due (“two”).

der

1975, Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Belknap Press, p. 223,
Duetting species are typically monogamous.

In several dozen species of birds there has been found a phenomenon known as duetting, or antiphonal singing: the first part of a song is executed by one partner of a pair, then the other partner very promptly chimes in to sing the second part.

1986, Thomas A. Sebeok, chapter 7, in I Think I Am a Verb: More Contributions to the Doctrine of Signs, New York: Springer Science+Business, published 2013, page 87:

(intransitive, zoology, of pairs of animals) To communicate (warnings, mating calls, etc.) through song.


catadromous

en-adj

catadromous (comparative more catadromous, superlative most catadromous)

more catadromous (comparative)
most catadromous (superlative)

From cata- + -dromous, by analogy with anadromous. Compare catanadromous.

Bird migration routes favor marshes and river valleys, as do, more obviously, the movement of anadromous salmon and, the mirror image, catadromous eels, to mention only two of the numerous migrating fish species.

2017, James C Scott, chapter 1, in Against the Grain, New Haven & London: Yale, →ISBN, page 53:

(ichthyology, of a migratory fish) Living in fresh water as an adult, but breeding in the sea.


band

en-verb

band (third-person singular simple present bands, present participle banding, simple past and past participle banded)

bands (present singular third-person)
banding (participle present)
banded (participle past)
banded (past)

Inherited from Middle English band (also bond), from Old English beand, bænd, bend (“bond, chain, fetter, band, ribbon, ornament, chaplet, crown”), from Proto-Germanic *bandą, *bandiz (“band, fetter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie, bind”). Middle English band reinforced by Old French bande. Cognate with Dutch band, German Band, Danish bånd, Swedish band, Icelandic band (“band”). Related to bond, bind, bend.

inh

(transitive, ornithology) To fasten an identifying band around the leg of (a bird).

rengastaa

ornithology: fasten an identifying band around the leg of


band

Cantonese: band

→ German: Band (colloquial)

→ Japanese: バンド (bando)

→ Korean: 밴드 (baendeu)

Derived from Middle English band, from Old French bande, from Old Occitan banda (“regiment of troops”), perhaps from Frankish *bend, from Proto-Germanic *bandiz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie; bond, band”). Compare German Bande (“band”).

der

(anthropology) A small group of people living in a simple society, contrasted with tribes, chiefdoms, and states.

banda

anthropology: small group of people living in a simple society


pariah

From Tamil பறையர் (paṟaiyar), from பறையன் (paṟaiyaṉ, “drummer”), from பறை (paṟai, “drum”) or from Malayalam പറയർ (paṟayaṟ), from പറയൻ (paṟayaṉ, “drummer”), from പറ (paṟa, “drum”). Parai in Tamil or Para in Malayalam refers to a type of large drum designed to announce the king’s notices to the public. The people who made a living using the parai were called paraiyar; in the caste-based society they were in the lower strata, hence the derisive paraiah and pariah.
Alternatively, derived from Sanskrit पर (para, “distant; outsider”).

(zoology) Ellipsis of pariah dog: an Indian breed, any stray dog in Indian contexts.


megachiropteran

(zoology) Of or relating to the fruit bats of suborder Megachiroptera.


megachiropteran

(zoology) A fruit bat of suborder Megachiroptera.


media

Learned borrowing from Latin media, the feminine nominative of medius (“middle”, adjective), from Proto-Italic *meðjos, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between”). In the sense of a unit of dry measure, via Spanish media. Doublet of medium, medio, and mediate.

(entomology) One of the major veins of the insect wing, between the radius and the cubitus.

(zoology) An ant specialized as a forager in a leaf-cutter ant colony.


acentrous

en-adj

acentrous (comparative more acentrous, superlative most acentrous)

more acentrous (comparative)
most acentrous (superlative)

2001, "Axial Skeleton", David Cannatella, https://web.archive.org/web/20051222184337/http://www.lifesci.utexas.edu/courses/bio478L/LecturesPDF/bodyskeleton.pdf
"Some bony fishes (Teleostei, Amia, Lepisosteus, and Brachiopterygii) have well-ossified centra and neural and hemal arches. Others (Dipnoi, Latimeria, and Chondrostei) lack centra (acentrous), and the notochord is unconstricted, and the bony neural and hemal arches simply rest on it."


acarology

From acaro- + -logy, based on Ancient Greek ἄκαρι (ákari, “cheese mite, tick”) + -λογία (-logía).

der

1999, Rodger David Mitchell (editor), Acarology IX, Volume 2: Symposia, Ohio Biological Survey, page xvii,
The students and faculty of the acarology course were Don's life, and his example pushed us all to higher levels of achievement.

General texts on acarology include works by Woolley (1987), Evans (1992), and Krantz and Walter (2009).

2009, Lance A. Durden, Gary R. Mullen, “Introduction”, in Gary R. Mullen, Lance A. Durden, editors, Medical and Veterinary Entomology, Elsevier (Academic Press), page 1:

Acarology is the study of mites, or Acari or Acarina. It is a specialized field of study in the larger topics of invertebrate zoology and entomology. Because some mites are economically important pests of agriculture (crops, honey bees, stored food products, and livestock), are household pests, or are vectors of diseases of humans and livestock, acarology is often studied in entomology departments.

2011, Marjorie A. Hoy, Agricultural Acarology, Taylor & Francis (CRC Press), page 3:


Abilene

Named for the town of Abilene, Texas, near where the artifacts were discovered.

(archaeology) Belonging to a prehistoric culture of central Texas, characterized by oval grinding stones.


obliterate

en-adj

obliterate (comparative more obliterate, superlative most obliterate)

more obliterate (comparative)
most obliterate (superlative)

Learned borrowing from Latin obliterātus (see more at Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix, of participial origin)).

lbor

/əˈblɪtəɹət/

/əˈblɪtəɹət/

(entomology, rare) Of markings on an insect: difficult to distinguish from the background; faint, indistinct.


cap

Inherited from Middle English cappe, from Old English cæppe, from Proto-West Germanic *kappā (“covering, hood, mantle”), from Late Latin cappa, itself from Latin caput. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *káput- and Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“head”). Doublet of cape, chape, and cope.

nalli

small amount of explosive used as detonator

(zoology) The whole top of the head of a bird from the base of the bill to the nape of the neck.


retrograde

en-adj

retrograde (comparative more retrograde, superlative most retrograde)

more retrograde (comparative)
most retrograde (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English retrograd, retrograde (“of a planet: appearing to move in a direction opposite to the order of the zodiac signs, retrograde; unfortunate”), from Middle French retrograde and Old French retrograde (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards; moving backwards; reverse; palindromic; opposed to change”) (modern French rétrograde), and from their etymon Latin retrōgradus (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards”) (compare Late Latin retrōgradus (“reverse; palindromic”)), from retrō (“back, backwards; behind; before, formerly”) + gradus (“pace, step”). By surface analysis, retro- + -grade.
The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.

cog

/ˈɹɛtɹə(ʊ)ɡɹeɪd/

/ˈɹɛtɹəˌɡɹeɪd/

retrògrad

reverting to an inferior or less developed state — see also declining, regressing

Reverting to an inferior or less developed state; declining, regressing.

(zoology) Of an animal: appearing to regress to a less developed form during its lifetime.


folium

en-noun

folium (countable and uncountable, plural foliums or folia)

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

From Latin folium (“leaf”). Doublet of foil and folio, distantly also with phyllo and phyllon.

The folium of silvatica has a row of oblique black markings along the edge on each side, while in angulata it is evenly notched.

1885, James Henry Emerton, New England Spiders of the Family Therididae - Volume 6, page 298:

Abdomen subovate to subtriangular, longer than wide, dorsum with an inverted Christmas tree-like folium of brown and chalk-white bands, cardiac area brown, serving as Christmas tree base.

1995, A. T. Barrion, J. A. Litsinger, Riceland Spiders of South and Southeast Asia, page 631:

The abdomen usually has a flattened anterior edge and its pattern, if present, lacks the folium of Xysticus and is much less structured.

2017, Lawrence Bee, Geoff Oxford, Helen Smith, Britain's Spiders: A Field Guide, page 371:

(zoology) A symmetric pattern on the abdomen of some spiders.


connective

From connect + -ive, modeled after French connectif, from New Latin connectivus, from connectō (“I connect”); compare connect, connexive, connectivum, connection.


sheath

From Middle English sheth, shethe (“holder for a sword, knife, etc., scabbard, sheath”) [and other forms], from Old English sċēaþ (“sheath”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþiju, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþiz (“sheath; covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect, split”) (possibly from the notion of a split stick with a sword inserted).
The English word is cognate with Danish skede, Dutch schede, Icelandic skeið, German Scheide, Low German scheed, Norwegian skjede.

nb...

chethe, scǽð, scaþ, schede, schete, scheth, schethe, seaþ, seeth, seth, sethe, shæþ, shede, sheethe, sheith, (Southwest) ssethe, sseþe, (early forms) scæðe, scaþe, seaþe

der

(entomology) One of the elytra of an insect.

(zoology) The foreskin of certain animals (for example, dogs and horses).


breve

From Middle English breve, variant of bref, from Old French brieve, breve (feminine form of brief, bref), from Latin brevis (“short”).

(zoology) A pitta, all of which have more or less short tails.


clan

→ Catalan: clan

→ Danish: klan

→ Dutch: clan

→ French: clan
→ Turkish: klan

→ Galician: clan

→ German: Clan

→ Italian: clan

→ Norwegian Bokmål: klan

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: klan

→ Polish: klan

→ Russian: клан (klan)

→ Portuguese: clan, clã

→ Spanish: clan

→ Swedish: klan

Borrowed from Irish clann (“offspring, children of the family”) and Scottish Gaelic clann, both from Old Irish cland, borrowed from Old Welsh plant, itself borrowed from Latin planta (“shoot, offspring”). Doublet of plant and planta.

отог

group of relatives with some degree of political organization

Coordinate term: lineage

(anthropology) A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known.


aculeate

en-adj

aculeate (comparative more aculeate, superlative most aculeate)

more aculeate (comparative)
most aculeate (superlative)

(entomology) Having a stinger; stinging.


axilla

Borrowed from Latin axilla (“side, armpit”). Doublet of axil.

(entomology) The area that is located posterior to the transscutal articulation and anterior to the scutoscutellar suture.


aviary

/ˈeɪviˌɛəɹi/

From Latin aviārium, from avis (“bird”).

A house, enclosure, large cage, or other place for keeping birds confined; a birdhouse.


giraffine

Of or relating to the giraffe or giraffes.


axial

(ornithology) A flight feather that appears between the primaries and secondaries on some birds.


phase

From New Latin phasis, from Ancient Greek φάσις (phásis, “an appearance”), from φάω (pháō, “to shine”); compare phantasm and see face.

vaihe

rugby union: period of play between breakdowns

(zoology) In certain organisms, one of two or more colour variations characteristic of the species, but independent of the ordinary seasonal and sexual differences, and often also of age.


specter

From Middle French spectre, from Latin spectrum (“appearance, apparition”). Doublet of spectrum.

(entomology) Any of certain species of dragonfly of the genus Boyeria, family Aeshnidae. [from 20th c.]


fin

Dutch language
German language
Latin language
Middle English language
Old English language
Old Irish language
Proto-Germanic language
Proto-Indo-European language
Sanskrit language
Swedish language
Tocharian A language
fin
fin (disambiguation)

From Middle English fin, from Old English finn, from Proto-Germanic *finnō, *finǭ (“dorsal fin”) (compare Dutch vin, German Finne, Swedish finne, fena), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pīn- (“backbone, dorsal fin”) (compare Old Irish ind (“end, point”), Latin pinna (“feather, wing, fin”), Tocharian A spin (“hook”), Sanskrit स्फ्य (sphyá, “splinter, staff”).

cog-lite

The fish's fins minimize water flow.

Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

(ichthyology) One of the appendages of a fish, used to propel itself and to manoeuvre/maneuver.


forget-me-not

Calque of Middle French ne m'oubliez mie or German Vergissmeinnicht.

calque

(entomology) Any of various light-blue coloured lycaenid butterflies of the Asian and Australasian genus Catochrysops, especially Catochrysops strabo native to India and Southeast Asia.


awl

From Middle English aul, alle, al, from Old English æl, from Proto-West Germanic *al, from Proto-Germanic *alaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ólos. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Äil (“awl”), Dutch aal (“awl”), German Low German Ahl (“awl”), German Ahle (“awl”), Icelandic alur (“awl”). Spelling was influenced by the Old English synonym awel, awul (“awl”), from Proto-West Germanic *ahwal, from Proto-Germanic *ahwalaz (“fork, hook”), of unknown origin. Doublet of elsen.

(entomology) Any of various hesperiid butterflies.


nutcracker

(ornithology) Either of two birds of the genus Nucifraga in the crow family.


lair

From Middle English leir, leire, lair, lare, from Old English leġer (“couch, bed”), from Proto-Germanic *legrą, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-.

O dainty dew, O morning dew / That gleamed in the world's first dawn, did you / And the sweet grass and manful oaks / Give lair and rest / To him who toadwise sits and croaks / His death-behest?

A place inhabited by a wild animal, often a cave or a hole in the ground.


palate

From Middle English palate, from Latin palātum (“roof of the mouth, palate”), perhaps of Etruscan origin.

bor

(anatomy) The roof of the mouth, separating the cavities of the mouth and nose in vertebrates.

(zoology) A part associated with the mouth of certain invertebrates, somewhat analagous to the palate of vertebrates.

(entomology, rare) The hypopharynx of an insect.


BRB

(archaeology) Initialism of bevelled-rim bowl or bevel-rimmed bowl: a small, undecorated, mass-produced clay bowl, most commonly from the 4th millennium B.C.


bladder

From Middle English bladdre, bleddre, bladder, bledder, from Old English blæddre, a variant of blǣdre, blēdre (“blister, bladder”), from Proto-West Germanic *blādrā, from Proto-Germanic *blēdrǭ, *bladrǭ (“blister, bladder”).

urogenital sinus - embryological precursor

(zoology) A flexible sac that can expand and contract and that holds liquids or gases.


carnivore

Borrowed from French carnivore, from Latin carnivorus. In the zoological sense, coined by William Whewell in 1840 as an adaptation of Cuvier's coinage, French carnivore.

The panda and the panther are both carnivores.

(zoology) A mammal belonging to the order Carnivora.


present

en-verb

present (third-person singular simple present presents, present participle presenting, simple past and past participle presented)

presents (present singular third-person)
presenting (participle present)
presented (participle past)
presented (past)

From Middle English presenten, from Old French presenter, from Latin praesentāre (“to show”), from praesent-, praesens, present participle of praeesse (“be in front of”).

(intransitive, zoology) To display one's female genitalia in a way that signals to others that one is ready for copulation. Also referred to as lordosis behaviour.


clava

(entomology) The fused distal segments of the antenna of a chalcid wasp.


polyandry

en-noun

polyandry (usually uncountable, plural polyandries)

(zoology) The mating pattern whereby a female copulates with plural males.


beak

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

(entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Libythea, notable for the beak-like elongation on their heads.


keel

From Middle English kele, from Old Norse kjǫlr, itself from Proto-Germanic *keluz, of uncertain origin. Displaced Old English ċēol from a related root. Distantly related to kile.

Metanotum shining, indistinctly punctured at the base in the centre, the sides closely punctured; the areola large, obliquely narrowed at the base, its apex open, there are 2 lateral areas, both widely open at the base on the outerside; the posterior median area bears about 10 stout, transverse keels; on its apical outerside is a triangular area; the spiracular is bounded on the outerside by a distinct keel.

1906, Records of the Albany Museum - Volume 1, page 314:

(zoology) The periphery of a whorl extended to form a more or less flattened plate; a prominent spiral ridge.


nursery

en-noun

nursery (countable and uncountable, plural nurseries)

Carolina Stanley
Fritz von Uhde
Kunsthalle Hamburg
María Eugenia Vidal

From Middle English noricerie, norserye (“children's nursery; state of being fostered or nursed; education, upbringing”) [and other forms], from Old French norricerie, nourricerie, from norrice, nourrice (modern French nourrice (“childminder, nanny; wet nurse”)) + -erie (suffix forming feminine nouns). Norrice and nourrice are derived from Late Latin nūtrīcia (“wet nurse”), from Latin nūtrīcius (“that nurses or suckles; nourishing”), from nūtriō (“to breastfeed, nurse, suckle”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- (“to flow”). The English word may be analysed as nourice, nurse + -ery (suffix forming nouns meaning ‘place of’).

refn

From the collection of the Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

nb...

norceri, norcerie, norcery, norcerye, norisri, norisrie, norisserie, norisserye, norserie, norserye, norsheri, norshery, norysrye, nursery

де́тска я́сла

place where nursing or the raising of children is carried out

разса́дник

(countable, also figuratively) A place where anything is fostered and growth promoted.

(agriculture, zoology) A place where animals breed, or where young animals are naturally or artificially reared (for example, on a farm).


pod

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English *pod ("seed-pod, husk, shell, outer covering"; attested in pod-ware (“legume seed; seed grain”)), itself possibly from Old English pād (“an outer garment, covering, coat, cloak”), from Proto-West Germanic *paidu, from Proto-Germanic *paidō (“coat, smock, shirt”), from Proto-Indo-European *baiteh₂- (“woolen clothes”). If so, then cognate with Old Saxon pēda (“skirt”), German dialectal Pfeid, Pfeit (“shirt”), Gothic 𐍀𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌰 (paida, “mantle, skirt”), and perhaps Albanian petk (“gown, garment, dress, suit”) and Ancient Greek βαίτη (baítē, “goat-skin, fur-coat, tent”).

unc

uncertain

gloss

"seed-pod, husk, shell, outer covering"; attested in <i class="Latn mention" lang="enm">pod-ware</i> (“legume seed; seed grain”)

ncog

(collective, zoology) A group of whales, dolphins, seals, porpoises or hippopotami.


primate

From French primate, from Latin primas (“one of the first, chief, excellent, noble”). So named due to the belief that primates are the “highest” order of mammals/animals. First attested in 1876.

der

Primates range from lemurs to gorillas.

(zoology) A mammal of the order Primates, including apes, monkeys, lemurs, tarsiers, lorisids, and galagos.


bidental

The letter proceeds to state that, besides this monster, there is a great variety of remains of another new order of animals, which Mr. Bain has deginated as bidentals, from their possessing only two teeth, or rather tusks, in the upper jaw, and none whatever in the lower jaw.

1845, The Church of England Magazine, volume 18:

That these Bidentals, as Mr. Owen more comprehensively calls them, are amongst the earliest reptiles, has been somewhat rashly assumed.

1851, Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the natural history of creation, page 305:

It was in this area, as well, that he found, among other creatures, his first Dicynodon, one of those famous mammal-like reptiles that he called bidentals because they had only two tusks in the upper jaw and no teeth.

1978, Eve Palmer, The Companion Guide to South Africa, page 242:

(zoology) An organism that has only two teeth, especially a dinosaur of the infraorder Dicynodontia.


section

From Middle English seccioun, from Old French section, from Latin sectiō (“cutting, cutting off, excision, amputation of diseased parts of the body, etc.”), from sectus, past participle of secāre (“to cut”). More at saw.

разрэ́з

surgery: incision or the act of making an incision

(zoology) An informal taxonomic rank below the order ranks and above the family ranks.

archeological sequence
archeological sequence

(archaeology) Archeological section; vertical plane and cross-section of the ground to view its profile and stratigraphy; part of an archeological sequence.


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.


pouch

From Middle English pouche, poche, borrowed from Old Northern French pouche, from Old French poche, puche (whence French poche; compare also the Anglo-Norman variant poke), of Germanic origin: from Frankish *poka (“pouch”) (compare Middle Dutch poke, Old English pohha, dialectal German Pfoch). Doublet of poke; compare pocket.

(zoology) An organic pocket in which a marsupial carries its young.


Proto-Indo-European

/ˌpɹəʊ̯təʊ̯ˌɪndə(ʊ̯)ˌjʊə̯ɹəˈpiːən/

/ˌpɹoʊ̯toʊ̯ˌɪndoʊ̯ˌjʊɹəˈpi.ən/

(anthropology, countable) A person who spoke the Proto-Indo-European language.


Proto-Indo-European

/ˌpɹəʊ̯təʊ̯ˌɪndə(ʊ̯)ˌjʊə̯ɹəˈpiːən/

/ˌpɹoʊ̯toʊ̯ˌɪndoʊ̯ˌjʊɹəˈpi.ən/

(linguistics, anthropology) Of or pertaining to the Proto-Indo-European language, or the people who spoke it.

նախահնդեվրոպական

pertaining to the Proto-Indo-European language, or the people who spoke it — see also Indo-European


birdsong

en-noun

birdsong (countable and uncountable, plural birdsongs)

(ornithology) A vocalisation made by a bird for the purposes of courtship.


patrilineal

The Xhosa are a proud and patrilineal people with an expressive and euphonious language and an abiding belief in the importance of laws, education and courtesy.

1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 4:

(anthropology) Pertaining to descent through male lines.


adjutant

From Latin adiūtō, frequentative of adiuvō (“assist”). First attested in 17th century. Or from Latin adiuvāns, present participle of adiuvō, from iuvō (“help”).

Aquatic birds of various kinds are very numerous, such as geese, darters (Plotus melanogaster), scissor-bills (Rhynchops nigra), adjutants (Leptoptilos argala), pelicans, cormorants, cranes (Grus antigone, in Burmese gyoja), whimbrels, plovers, and ibises.

1876, "Burmah" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. IV, p. 552

(zoology) Any bird of the genus Leptoptilos, a branch of the stork family (Ciconiidae) native to India and Southeast Asia.


dovecote

If you haue writ your Annales true, 'tis there, / That like an Eagle in a Doue-cote, I / Flutter'd your Volcians in Corioles.

c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 30:

she could see the malt-house with its dovecote

2003, Peter Ackroyd, The Clerkenwell Tales, page 2:

A small house or box, often raised to a considerable height above the ground, and having compartments (pigeonholes), in which domestic pigeons breed; a dove house.

աղավնատուն

house or box in which domestic pigeons breed


nest

From Middle English nest, nist, nyst, from Old English nest, from Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą, from Proto-Indo-European *nisdós (“nest”), literally "where [the bird] sits down", a compound of *ni (“down”) (whence also English nether) + the zero-grade of the root *sed- (“to sit”) (whence also English sit).

it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest

Subroutine 4 cannot jump out of the subroutine nest in one step. Each return address must be popped from the stack in the order in which it was pushed onto the stack.

1981, Donnamaie E. White, Bit-Slice Design: Controllers and ALU's, Garland STPM Press, →ISBN, page 49:

Our analysis to this point has assumed that in a loop nest, we are only parallelizing a single loop.

1993 August, Bwolen Yang et al., "Do&Merge: Integrating Parallel Loops and Reductions", in Languages and Compilers for Parallel Computing (workshop proceedings), Springer (1994), page 178

(computing) A structure consisting of nested structures, such as nested loops or nested subroutine calls.


-id

From Middle French -ide (like also English -ide), French -ide, and their sources, Latin -id-, -is and Ancient Greek -ῐδ- (-id-), -ῐς (-is).

A felid is a member of Felidae.

(zoology) Forming common names of members of a taxon which has a name ending in -idae.


corselet

From French corselet, from cors, an archaic spelling of corps (“body”).

With the added suggestion of her goggles it reminded her pupil of the polished shell or corslet of a horrid beetle.


synonymy

synonymy (countable and uncountable, plural synonymies)

From Latin synonymia, from Ancient Greek συνωνυμία (sunōnumía), from σύν (sún, “with”) + ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”).

(zoology) The collective synonyms (all the names referring to the same taxon, including the correct name)