Aryan

From Sanskrit आर्य (ā́rya, “noble; noble one”) + -n. The Sanskrit word is from Proto-Indo-Iranian *áryas (the original Indo-Iranian autonym). Borrowed into English in the 19th century, at first as a term for the Indo-Iranian languages, and later partly extended to the Indo-European languages and peoples following a theory by Friedrich Schlegel that connected the Indo-Iranian words arya/ā́rya with German Ehre (“honor”) and some older Germanic names, thus assuming that it was the original Indo-European autonym meaning "the honorable people". The original meaning of the Indo-Iranian autonym and its possible Indo-European origin/cognates are disputed (see the Wikipedia article for further details).
The same Proto-Indo-Iranian root is the ultimate source of the country name Iran.

der

[The] Caucasian race includes two sub-races, — the Xantho-chroic and Melanochroic of Huxley. The seat of this race is Europe, northern Africa, and southwestern Asia, its linguistic division being into Aryans, Semites, and Hamites.

1892, Charles Morris, The Aryan Race: Its Origins and Its Achievements:

The surest principle of classification is based on language, but the results must be tested by a study of the physical characteristics of the various races. According to this method of classification, the races of the world may be divided as follows: Aryan, Semitic, Hamitic, Turanian, Negroid. The name Caucasian is generally applied to the first three divisions, — Aryans, Semites, and Hamites. Aryan. — This includes the ancient Hindus […] the Persians, Greeks, Italians, Celts, Teutons, and Slavs.

1900, Frank Moore Colby, Outlines of General History:

(ethnography, dated) A subdivision of the Caucasian racial and linguistic grouping, when that grouping is defined as consisting of Aryans, Semites, and Hamites.

အာရိယန်

in ethnography, a subdivision of the Caucasian race


virgin

From Middle English virgine, from Old French virgine, from Latin virginem, accusative of virgō. Doublet of Virgo. Displaced native Old English fǣmne.

(entomology) A female insect producing eggs from which young are hatched, though there has been no fecundation by a male; a parthenogenetic insect.


flavid

From Latin flāvidus, ultimately from flāvus.


tun

From Middle English tunne, tonne (“cask, barrel”), from Old English tunne (“tun, cask, barrel”), from Proto-Germanic *tunnǭ, *tunnō (“tun, barrel, cask”), from Latin tunna, probably of Gaulish origin.
Cognate with North Frisian tenn (“tun, barrel, cask”), Dutch ton (“tun, barrel, cask”), German Tonne (“tun, barrel, drum”), Danish tønde (“barrel”), Swedish tunna (“barrel, cask, tun”), Icelandic tunna (“barrel”). Compare also Old French tonne, French tonneau (“ton, barrel”), Medieval Latin tunna (“cask”), Middle Irish tunna (“cask”), Welsh tynell (“tun, barrel”). It is uncertain whether the Germanic or the Celtic forms are the original.

cog

Synonym of long ton: a unit of mass equal to 2240 pounds, 20 hundredweights of 112 pounds avoirdupois each.

long ton

He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, / This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this, / Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim / Hear no more of you.

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

A Tun of Man in thy Large bulk is writ, / But sure thou'rt but a Kilderkin of wit.

1682, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe, lines 195–196:

(figurative) Synonym of ton: any extremely or excessively large amount.

ton

(archaic, humorous or derogatory) Synonym of drunkard: a person who drinks excessively.

Any shell belonging to Tonna and allied genera.


tun

A part of the ancient Maya Long Count Calendar system which corresponds to 18 winal cycles or 360 days.


umbo

en-noun

umbo (plural umbones or umbos or umboes)

umbones (plural)
umbos (plural)
umboes (plural)

Borrowed from Latin umbō (“a shield boss”).

(biology) A boss, or rounded elevation, or a corresponding depression, in a palate, disk, or membrane.

(zoology) One of the lateral prominences just above the hinge of a bivalve shell.


buckler

From Middle English bukler, bokler, bokeler, bokeleer, from Old French bocler, boucler, bucler, (French bouclier) from Vulgar Latin *bucculārius (“bossed”), from Latin buccula (“boss”). Merged with buckle + -er.

Most zeids have spiny projections or bucklers at the dorsal- and anal-fin bases and bony plates on the ventral surface of the abdomen.

2000, Jeffrey Martin Leis, Brooke M. Carson-Ewart, The Larvae of Indo-Pacific Coastal Fishes, page 186:

(zoology) One of the large, bony, external plates found on many ganoid fishes.

(zoology) The anterior segment of the shell of a trilobite.


placer

From place + -er (suffix apparently denoting association).

suffix

This is a “placer” sheep, as it is called. The prerequisites to this condition are that the young sheep must be still nursing, but must have begun to nibble grass. It must be the young of a mother that has been somewhat isolated, away from the corral and away from the herd, by herself out on the prairie. Now, when the mother dies, the lamb remains close to the mother′s body[…].

1951, Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, Problems of Infancy and Childhood, volume 4, page 101:

1971, American Society of Animal Science. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 32, Pages 601-1298, page 1281,
In Australia “placer” lambs are also destroyed, for these too are of little use; they will return constantly to one place, not staying with the flock.

(ethology, sheep, Australia, New Zealand) A lamb whose mother has died and which has transferred its attachment to an object, such as a bush or rock, in the locality.


maritime

en-adj

maritime (comparative more maritime, superlative most maritime)

more maritime (comparative)
most maritime (superlative)

/ˈmæɹ.ɪˌtɑɪm/

Borrowed from Middle French maritime, from Latin maritimus.

a maritime bird or animal

On the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and northernmost Florida, maritime forests are dominated by live oaks (Quercus virginiana), and occur as large contiguous patches of forest on barrier islands, the immediate mainland, and as small patches (oak hammocks) scattered among coastal marshes.

2004 March, Scott G. Somershoe, C. Ray Chandler, “Use of Oak Hammocks by Neotropical Migrant Songbirds: the Role of Area and Habitat”, in The Wilson Bulletin, volume 116, number 1, Lawrence, KS: Wilson Ornithological Society, page 56:

(zoology) Inhabiting the seashore; living coastwise; littoral. (distinguished from marine)


vortex

(zoology) Any of numerous species of small Turbellaria belonging to Vortex and allied genera.


pectoral

All senses are ultimately from Latin pectorālis, but some may have come through Old French and Middle English.

the pectoral sandpiper

(zoology) Having the breast conspicuously colored.


porter

From Middle English porter, portere, portier, borrowed from Anglo-Norman portour and Old French porteor, from Late Latin portātor, from past participle of Latin portāre (“to carry”). By surface analysis, port (“to carry”) + -er.

surf

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

(entomology) An ant having the specialized role of carrying.


barrel

From Middle English barel, from Anglo-Norman baril, Old French baril, bareil (“barrel”), of uncertain origin. An attempt to link baril to Old French barre (“bar, bolt”) (compare Medieval Latin barra (“bar, rod”)) via assumed Vulgar Latin *barrīculum meets the phonological requirement, but fails to connect the word semantically. The alternate connection to Frankish *baril, *beril or Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐍂𐌹𐌻𐍃 (bērils, “container for transport”), from Proto-Germanic *barilaz, *bērilaz (“barrel, jug, container”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, transport”), is more plausible as it connects not only the form of the word but also the sense; equivalent to bear + -le. Compare also Old High German biril (“jug, large pot”), Luxembourgish Bärel, Bierel (“jug, pot”), Old Norse berill (“barrel for liquids”), Old English byrla (“barrel of a horse, trunk, body”). More at bear.

vat

round vessel made from staves bound with a hoop

(zoology) The hollow basal part of a feather.


industry

en-noun

industry (countable and uncountable, plural industries)

From Middle English industry, industrie, from Old French industrie, from Latin industria (“diligence, activity, industry”), from industrius (“diligent, active, zealous”), from Old Latin indostruus (“diligent, active”); origin unknown. Perhaps from indu (“in”) + ūst-, ūstr-, stem of ūrō (“burn, burn up, consume”, verb), related to Old High German ūstrī (“industry”), Old English andūstrian (“to hate, detest”, literally “to be consumed with zeal”).

cog

(archaeology) A typological classification of stone tools, associated with a technocomplex.


baculum

Learned borrowing from Latin baculum (“stick, staff, sceptre, cudgel”).

lbor

Bacula can be straight rods, s-shaped curves, or even bizarre, flared scoops.

2018 January 24, Elsa Panciroli, The Guardian:

(zoology) A bone found in the penis of some placental mammals.


oophagy

A number of shark species go in for oophagy, or uterine cannibalism.

2015, Theo Tait, ‘Don't wear yum-yum yellow’, London Review of Books, volume 34, number 15:

(zoology) The cannibalization of subordinate eggs within a homogeneous population or the uterus; particularly as it relates to certain insect and aquatic species.


barb

PIE word
 *bʰardʰéh₂
From Middle English barbe, from Middle French barbe, from Old French barbe (“beard, beard-like element”). Doublet of beard.

der

(ornithology) One of the many side branches of a feather, which collectively constitute the vane.

(ichthyology) Any of various species of freshwater carp-like fish that have barbels and belong to the cyprinid family.


caste

Borrowed from Portuguese or Spanish casta (“lineage, breed, race”), of uncertain origin.
* The OED derives it from Portuguese casto (“chaste”), from Latin castus (“chaste"; "chastity”).
* Coromines (1987) argues instead for a hypothetical Gothic form *𐌺𐌰𐍃𐍄𐍃 (*kasts, “group, collection of animals”), cognate with English cast, from Proto-Germanic *kastuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es-.

unc

uncertain

In beehives, most bees belong to the worker caste.

(zoology) A class of polymorphous eusocial insects of a particular size and function within a colony.


style

en-noun

style (countable and uncountable, plural styles)

→ Finnish: staili

→ Scottish Gaelic: stoidhle

→ Iban: stail

→ Japanese: スタイル (sutairu)

→ Korean: 스타일 (seutail)

→ Malay: stail

→ Portuguese: style

→ Swahili: staili

The noun is derived from Middle English stile, stel, stele, stiel, stiele, stil, still, stille, styele, style, styill, styll, styyl (“writing tool, stylus; piece of written work; characteristic mode of expression, particularly one regarded as high quality; demeanour, manner, way of life; person's designation or title; stem of a plant; period of time”), from Old French style, estile, stil, stile (modern French style), or from Medieval Latin stylus, both from Latin stilus (“pointed instrument, pale, spike, stake; writing tool, stylus; act of setting down in writing, composition; characteristic mode of expression, style; stem of a plant”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp; to pierce, prick, puncture, stab; to goad”). Doublet of stylus.
The English word is cognate with Catalan estil (“engraving tool, stylus; gnomon; manner of doing something, style; fashionable skill, grace”), German Stiel (“handle; stalk”), Italian stilo (“needle, stylus; fountain pen; beam; gnomon; part of pistil, style”), Occitan estil, Portuguese estilo (“writing tool, stylus; manner of doing something, style”), Spanish estilo (“writing tool, stylus; manner of doing something, style; fashionable skill, grace; part of pistil, style”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

styl

manner of expression in writing or speech

styl

manner of creating, doing, or presenting something, especially a work of architecture or art

Senses relating to a thin, pointed object.

(zoology) A small, thin, pointed body part.

the anal styles of insects

(entomology) A long, slender, bristle-like process near the anal region.


kettle

→ Brunei Malay: kitil

→ Persian: کتری (ketri)

→ Bengali: কেটলি (keṭli)

→ Hindi: केतली (ketlī)

→ Gujarati: કીટલી (kīṭlī)

→ Irish: citeal

→ Maltese: kitla

→ Zulu: igedlela

From Middle English ketel, also chetel, from Old English ċietel (“kettle, cauldron”) and in Middle English possibly influenced by Old Norse ketill and both from Proto-Germanic *katilaz (“kettle, bucket, vessel”), of uncertain origin and formation. Usually regarded as a borrowing of Late Latin catīllus (“small bowl”), diminutive of Latin catinus (“deep bowl, vessel for cooking up or serving food”), however, the word may be Germanic confused with the Latin: compare Old English cete (“cooking pot”), Old High German chezzi (“a kettle, dish, bowl”), Icelandic kati, ketla (“a small boat”). Cognate with West Frisian tsjettel (“kettle”), Dutch ketel (“kettle”), German Kessel (“kettle”), Swedish kittel (“cauldron”), Swedish kittel (“kettle”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (katils, “kettle”), Finnish kattila, Polish kocioł (“cauldron”), Czech kotel (“boiler”), Russian котёл (kotjól, “boiler, cauldron”).

cog

a kettle of hawks

Kettles can consist of thousands of birds migrating together.

2010, Jean-Luc E. Cartron, Raptors of New Mexico:

(ornithology, collective) A group of raptors riding a thermal, especially when migrating.


ziggurat

Learned borrowing from Akkadian 𒅆𒂍𒉪 (ziqqurratum).

lbor

It would be uplifting to think that the ziggurat was the first expression of Near Eastern civilization, for then one could speak about humanity's fascination with the heavens, of the human quest for communion with the infinite.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 159:

(archaeology) A temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian valley, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories


enzootic

(epidemiology) a disease which is consistently prevalent in a population of non-human animals in a limited region, season or climate.


wreck

From Middle English wrek, from Anglo-Norman wrek, from Old Norse *wrek (Norwegian and Icelandic rek, Swedish vrak, Danish vrag), from Proto-Germanic *wrekaną, whence also Old English wrecan (English wreak), Old High German rehhan, Old Saxon wrekan, Gothic 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (wrikan).

[I]n 1952 more than 7,000 were involved in such a "wreck" in Britain and Ireland.

1988, Michael Cady, Rob Hume, editors, The Complete Book of British Birds, page 89:

(ornithology) A large number of birds that have been brought to the ground, injured or dead, by extremely adverse weather.


primer

en-noun

primer (countable and uncountable, plural primers)

запалка

small charge used to ignite gunpowder or other explosive

(medicine, zoology) A pheromone which interacts first with the endocrine system.

alustava feromoni

medicine, zoology: pheromone which interacts first


leporine

/ˈlɛpəˌɹaɪn/

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin leporīnus + English -ine (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). Leporīnus is derived from leporis (the genitive singular form of lepus (“hare”)) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).
The noun is derived from the adjective.

(hare):

(rabbit):

His leporine ears perked up at the mention of dessert.

This [the harp seal] inhabits the ſame countries vvith the Rough and Leporine Seal; but loves the coldeſt parts of the coaſt.

1784, Thomas Pennant, “Harp Seal”, in Arctic Zoology, volume I (Introduction. Class I. Quadrupeds.), London: […] Henry Hughs, →OCLC, paragraph 77, page 164:

Thus it is that one injustice generates another, and that the breed is propagated, with more than leporine fecundity, through every successive measure which these third-rate Legislators, these Statesmen in waiting, are sent to inflict upon Ireland.

1824, Captain Rock [pseudonym; Thomas Moore], chapter X, in Memoirs of Captain Rock, the Celebrated Irish Chieftain, with Some Account of His Ancestors. […], 3rd edition, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orms, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, pages 322–323:

[T]he fur [of the hispid hare] is very remarkable for an animal of the Leporine group, on account of its harshness, which is well expressed by the specific appellation hispidus.

1846 March, E[dward] Blyth, “XXIV.—Description of Caprolagus, a New Genus of Leporine Mammalia.”, in The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, volume XVII, number 111, London: R[ichard] and J[ohn] E[dward] Taylor, →OCLC, page 164:

I further give an anatomical systematic revision of the adult leporine tapeworms, together with their generic relationship to the cestodes of cattle, sheep, and horses.

1897, Ch[arles] Wardell Stiles, “A Revision of the Adult Tapeworms of Hares and Rabbits”, in Proceedings of the United States National Museum, volume XIX, number 1105, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum, Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 146:

Glad as she was to eat of the leporine family, she detested sport for sport's sake, even the fox-hunting, though her poultry-run had just been raided and a dog-fox had snarled fearlessly at Nip from the ditch.

1919, Israel Zangwill, “Winter’s Tale”, in Jinny the Carrier, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, section I, page 448:

This is basic Peter Rabbit economics that everyone can understand [quoting Thomas G. Ayers]. / Having little faith in economists, even leporine ones, I propose to examine Ayers' thesis carefully.

1975 February, Dennis J. Chase, “A Commentary: Clouding the Nuclear Reactor Debate”, in Eugene Rabinowitch, editor, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: A Magazine of Science and Public Affairs, volume XXXI, number 2, Chicago, Ill.: Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 41, column 1:

This curious passage begins with an intimation of a level of awareness in Uncle Remus, associated with his leporine "quick ear," which allows him to shift from the "senseless affair" into "a recitation of nonsense."

1990, Craig Werner, “The Framing of Charles W. Chesnutt: Practical Deconstruction in the Afro-American Tradition”, in Jefferson Humphries, editor, Southern Literature and Literary Theory, Athens, Ga., London: University of Georgia Press, →ISBN, page 348:

Mr Todd launched into a forceful disquisition, […] At last he stopped and sat gazing at her with the same desperate, leporine look as before, audibly breathing, his lips drawn back in a sort of leer and those teeth on show again.

2005 June 3, John Banville, “Part I”, in The Sea, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 17:

The aforementioned rodent and leporine studies represented some of the first in vivo reports of intra-amniotic injection of fetal cells in mammals.

2021, Stefanie P. Lazow, Dario O. Fauza, “Transamniotic Stem Cell Therapy”, in Kürşad Türkşen, editor, Cell Biology and Translational Medicine (Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology; 1237), volumes 7 (Stem Cells and Therapy: Emerging Approaches), Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 68, column 1:

(chiefly mammalogy, also figuratively) Of, relating to, or resembling a hare or rabbit.

أَرْنَبِيّ

of, relating to, or resembling a hare or rabbit


leporine

/ˈlɛpəˌɹaɪn/

The most frequent intestinal parasite of rodents is probably Oxyuris ambigua, but Strong. retortæformis is tolerably abundant in the hare, and Trichocephalus unguiculatus is liable to occur in all leporines. […] Acari infest rats and mice, and especially leporines.

1879, T[homas] Spencer Cobbold, “Parasites of Animals”, in Parasites; a Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals, including Some Account of the Ectozoa, London: J[ohn] & A[ugustus] Churchill, […], →OCLC, book II, page 319:

It will be seen that the variability in any one formula (excepting the anomaly of m. ⁴⁄₄) is confined to the premolars; that these only vary in one instance in the Hystricines; and that the incisors only vary from ²⁄₂ to ⁴⁄₂ in the Leporines.

1888, Elliott Coues, “Order II.—Rodentia.”, in John Sterling Kingsley, editor, The Riverside Natural History, volume V (Mammals), London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., […], →OCLC, page 70:

+Trischizolagus has been proposed as a probable Oryctolagus ancestor, as well as for Lepus and other leporines, although no transitional populations have yet been found.

2008, Nieves Lopez-Martinez, “The Lagomorph Fossil Record and the Origin of the European Rabbit”, in Paulo C[élio] Alves, Nuno Ferrand, Klaus Hackländer, editors, Lagomorph Biology: Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →ISBN, page 41:

The western Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera) have an insular history since the Miocene, and are famed for the unique caprine Myotragus (a goat relative) and endemic leporines (rabbits). […] [R]aptors coevolved with the insular radiations of rodents, leporines, and larger mammals.

2009, Trevor H[enry] Worthy, “Fossil Birds”, in Rosemary G. Gillespie, David A. Clague, editors, Encyclopedia of Islands (Encyclopedias of the Natural World; 2), Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 321, column 1:

They [the Mexican volcano rabbit and the South African red rock hare] may be leftovers of a primitive stock because their distribution is peripheral to that of the advanced leporines.

2021, Alexandra van der Geer, George Lyras, John de Vos, “Japan: the Southern and Central Ryukyu Islands”, in Evolution of Island Mammals: Adaptation and Extinction of Placental Mammals on Islands, 2nd edition, Hoboken, N.J., Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, →ISBN, page 370:

Synonym of leporid (“any mammal of the family Leporidae: the hares and rabbits”)


inferior

en-adj

inferior (comparative more inferior, superlative most inferior)

more inferior (comparative)
most inferior (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin īnferior (“lower in situation or place”), comparative of īnferus (“below, underneath”).

bor

(zoology) Situated in a relatively low posterior or ventral position in a quadrupedal body.


trachea

en-noun

trachea (plural tracheae or (obsolete) tracheæ or tracheas)

tracheae (plural)
tracheæ (obsolete plural)
tracheas (plural)

From late Middle English, from Medieval Latin trāchēa (“the windpipe”) (also borrowed as Late Latin trāchīa), from Ancient Greek τρᾱχεῖᾰ ᾰ̓ρτηρῐ́ᾱ (trākheîa artēríā, “windpipe, trachea”).

der

τρᾱχεῖᾰ ᾰ̓ρτηρῐ́ᾱ

(entomology) One of the cuticle-lined primary tubes in the respiratory system of an insect, which extend throughout its body.


swift

Swift (bird)
Swift (disambiguation)
Swift (textiles)

From Middle English swift, from Old English swift (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Germanic *swiftaz (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)weyp- (“to twist; wind around”). Cognate with Icelandic svipta (“to pull quickly”), Old English swīfan (“to revolve, sweep, wend, intervene”). More at swivel.

cog

(entomology) A moth of the family Hepialidae, swift moth, ghost moth.

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:

(entomology) Any of various fast-flying hesperiid butterflies.


divorce

en-noun

divorce (countable and uncountable, plural divorces)

Derived from Old French divorce, from Latin dīvortium, from dīvertere (“to turn aside”), from dī- (“apart”) + vertere (“to turn”); see verse.

(zoology) The separation of a bonded pair of animals.


chopper

(archaeology) A crude tool with an irregular cutting edge formed by removing flakes from one side of a stone.

kirves

archaeology: crude tool with an irregular cutting edge


fill

fill (countable and uncountable, plural fills)

From Middle English fille, vülle, fülle, from Old English fyllu, from Proto-West Germanic *fullī, from Proto-Germanic *fullį̄ (“fullness”). Cognate with German Fülle.

(archaeology) Soil and/or human-created debris discovered within a cavity or cut in the layers and exposed by excavation; fill soil.


affine

1970 [Routledge and Kegan Paul], Raymond Firth, Jane Hubert, Anthony Forge, Families and Their Relatives: Kinship in a Middle-Class Sector of London, 2006, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 135,
The element of personal idiosyncracy may be expected to be most marked in regard to affines (i.e. those related by marriage) and particularly with the consanguines of affines, who are linked by still more tenuous bonds. There are many possible degrees of affinal relationship here, but broadly affines separate into two main types: spouse of consanguine of Ego, and consanguine of spouse of Ego—exemplified by my brother's wife, and my wife's brother.

In contrast to bonds of kaḅisu membership, which require ritual maintenance and can produce intense factional rivalries, and those of affines, which demand ongoing exchanges, unmediated relations of blood are created by nothing more than physical procreation.[…]People's ability to swivel between these two rhetorical possibilities reflects the inherent tension that lies between affines, who are both others and extensions of oneself.

1997, Webb Keane, Signs of Recognition: Powers and Hazards of Representation in an Indonesian Society, University of California Press, page 51:

For the Cubeo the Vekürüwá and Okómiwa were, as they say, designated to be their affines, in a manner that was calculated to emphasize their similarities rather than the formal differences that set contemporary intermarriages apart. I suspect that Cubeo themselves sense that an excessive intimacy with the contingent of affines may have been suitable for a formative period of still ambiguous distinctions, but not for the real social world.

2004, Irving Goldman, Cubeo Hehénewa Religious Thought, Columbia University Press, page 64:

(anthropology, genealogy) A relative by marriage.


hooper

Cygnus cygnus
Cygnus cygnus#Translingual

(ornithology) The European whistling, or wild, swan (Cygnus cygnus).


lappet

Some vultures have lappets of bare flesh on the sides of the head.

Tompot blennies are distinguished by a pair of lappets above the eyes and dark stripes along the body.

(zoology) A wattle or flap-like structure on the face.

heltta (wattle)

zoology: wattle or flap-like structure on the face


gape

gape (countable and uncountable, plural gapes)

From Middle English gapen, from Old Norse gapa (“to gape”) (compare Swedish gapa, Danish gabe), from Proto-Germanic *gapōną (descendants Middle English geapen, Dutch gapen, German gaffen), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰеh₂b-. Cognates include Russian зяпа (zjapa).

(zoology) The maximum opening of the mouth (of a bird, fish, etc.) when it is open.


lithic

(archaeology, often capitalised) pertaining to Native American culture before circa 8,500 BCE


lithic

(anthropology) A stone tool or projectile


balk

From Middle English balke, from Old English balca, either from or influenced by Old Norse bálkr (“partition, ridge of land”), from Proto-Germanic *balkô. Cognate with Dutch balk (“balk”), German Balken (“balk”), Italian balcone (“balcony”).

der

(archaeology) The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.


nereid

From the stem of Latin Nērēis (“sea-nymph”), from Ancient Greek Νηρηΐς (Nērēḯs), from Νηρεύς (Nēreús, “the sea-god Nereus”).


medial

en-adj

medial (comparative more medial, superlative most medial)

more medial (comparative)
most medial (superlative)

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

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

среден

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

(entomology) Of or pertaining to the media and/or the areas of the wing next to it.


sport

en-noun

sport (countable and uncountable, plural sports)

→ Belarusian: спорт (sport)

→ Bulgarian: спорт (sport)

→ Catalan: esport

→ Cebuano: esport

→ Czech: sport

→ Danish: sport

→ Dutch: sport (see there for further descendants)

→ French: sport (see there for further descendants)

→ Georgian: სპორტი (sṗorṭi)

→ German: Sport (see there for further descendants)

→ Hebrew: ספורט

→ Hungarian: sport

→ Irish: spórt, spóirt (Cois Fharraige)

→ Italian: sport

→ Latvian: sports

→ Lithuanian: sportas

→ Lower Sorbian: sport

→ Macedonian: спорт (sport)

→ Norman: sport

→ Northern Kurdish: spor

→ Norwegian: sport

→ Polish: sport

→ Brazilian Portuguese: esporte

→ Russian: спорт (sport) (see there for further descendants)

→ Scottish Gaelic: spòrs

→ Serbo-Croatian: sport / спорт

→ Swahili: spoti

→ Swedish: sport

→ Thai: สปอร์ต (sà-bpɔ̀ɔt)

→ Uzbek: sport

Japanese: スポーツ (supōtsu)

Korean: 스포츠 (seupocheu)

From Middle English sporten (verb) and sport, spoort, sporte (noun), apheretic shortenings of disporten (verb) and disport, disporte (noun). More at disport.

We never shot another like it, so I do not know if it was a `sport' or a distinct species.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

At Hortus Bulborum you will find heirloom narcissi that date back at least to the 15th century and famous old tulips like 'Duc van Tol' (1595) and its sports.

2014 September 26, Charles Quest-Ritson, “The Dutch garden where tulip bulbs live forever: Hortus Bulborum, a volunteer-run Dutch garden, is dedicated to conserving historic varieties before they vanish for good [print version: Inspired by a living bulb archive, 27 September 2014, p. G5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening):

(biology, botany, zoology, countable) A plant or an animal, or part of a plant or animal, which has some peculiarity not usually seen in the species; an abnormal variety or growth. The term encompasses both mutants and organisms with non-genetic developmental abnormalities such as birth defects.


ovate

Slightly derived handaxes from the Mildenhall glaciofluvial sands, generally in fresh condition and dominated by ovates and cordates.

2012, Paul Pettitt, Mark White, The British Palaeolithic, page 122:


meson

From Ancient Greek μέσον (méson, “middle”).

(rare outside entomology) The mesial plane dividing the body into similar right and left halves.


neuron

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek νεῦρον (neûron, “nerve”), doublet of nerve and sinew. By surface analysis, neuro- + -on.

(zoology) A nervure of an insect's wing.


scutum

Borrowed from Latin scūtum (“shield”). Doublet of escudo, scudo, scute, and écu.

doublet

A tick's eye, if present, is a mere roundish lucent area at the margin of the scutum about opposite the second coxa.

2009, Dwight D. Bowman, Georgis' Parasitology for Veterinarians:

(zoology) A shield-like protection, such as the scutum protecting the back of a hard tick (cf. alloscutum, conscutum)

(zoology) One of the two lower valves of the operculum of a barnacle.


puffin

From Middle English poffin, poffoun, puffon, equivalent to puff + -ing, or perhaps ultimately from Middle Cornish (compare Breton poc'han (“puffin”)).

(entomology) Any of various African and Asian pierid butterflies of the genus Appias. Some species of this genus are also known as albatrosses.


sambar

Borrowed from Hindi सांभर (sāmbhar), साँभर (sāmbhar), from Sanskrit शम्बर (śambara, “a kind of deer”).

der

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

(zoology) A Southeast Asian deer (Rusa unicolor).


mew

From Middle English mewe, mue, mwe, from Anglo-Norman mue, muwe, and Middle French mue (“shedding feathers; cage for moulting birds; prison”), from muer (“to moult”).

(obsolete) A prison, or other place of confinement.

(falconry, in the plural) A building or set of buildings where moulting birds are kept.


mew

en-verb

mew (third-person singular simple present mews, present participle mewing, simple past and past participle mewed)

mews (present singular third-person)
mewing (participle present)
mewed (participle past)
mewed (past)

More pity that the eagle should be mew’d,
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

To mew me in a Ship, is to inthrall
Mee in a prison, that weare like to fall;

c. 1596, John Donne, “Elegie XX: Loves Warre”, in Charles M. Coffin, editor, The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne, New York: Modern Library, page 84:

1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Juvenal, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 1, p. 10,
[…] Nay some have learn’d the trick
To beg for absent persons; feign them sick,
Close mew’d in their Sedans, for fear of air:

When it came to his turn to mention Sir John Sparkle, he represented him as a man of an immense estate and narrow disposition, who mewed up his only child, a fine young lady, from the conversation of mankind, under the strict watch and inspection of an old governante, who was either so honest, envious, or insatiable, that nobody had been as yet able to make her a friend, or get access to her charge, though numbers attempted it every day […]

1748, Tobias Smollett, chapter 50, in The Adventures of Roderick Random.:

[…] it was all very well for Orlando to mew herself in her house at Blackfriars and pretend that the climate was the same […]

1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 5, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:

(archaic) To shut away, confine, lock up.


winker

From wink (“blinking of only one eye”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

silmäniskijä

There is a third inner eyelid, highly developed and of beautiful mechanism: this is the nictitating membrane, or "winker" (nictito, I wink), a delicate, elastic, translucent, pearly-white fold of the conjunctiva. While the other lids move vertically and have a horizontal commissure, the winker sweeps horizontally or obliquely across the ball, from the side next the beak to the opposite.

1884, Elliott Coues, “§ 4.—An Introduction to the Anatomy of Birds.”, in Key to North American Birds. […], 2nd edition, Boston, Mass.: Estes and Lauriat, →OCLC, part II (General Ornithology), page 180:

nictitating membrane
nictitating membrane#English

A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks.

(ornithology) The nictitating membrane (“transparent protective fold of skin acting as an inner eyelid”) of a birds's eye.


milt

en-noun

milt (countable and uncountable, plural milts)

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

inh

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

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

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

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

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


milt

en-verb

milt (third-person singular simple present milts, present participle milting, simple past and past participle milted)

milts (present singular third-person)
milting (participle present)
milted (participle past)
milted (past)

(transitive) To impregnate (the roe of a fish) with milt.


taster

From Middle English taster; equivalent to taste + -er.

(zoology) A kind of zooid situated on the polyp-stem of certain Siphonophorae, resembling the feeding zooids, but destitute of mouths.


tibia

Borrowed from Latin tībia (“shin bone, leg”).

(entomology) The second segment from the end of an insect's leg, between the femur and tarsus.

(arachnology) The third segment from the end of an arachnid's leg, between the patella and metatarsus.


nape

From Middle English nape, naape, of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old French hanap (“goblet”), from Frankish *hnapp, from Proto-Germanic *hnappaz ( > Old English hnæpp, hnæp (“cup, bowl, goblet”)), as there is a hollow at the base of the skull. More at nap.

(zoology) The part of a fish or bird immediately behind the head.


holt

From Middle English holt, from Old English holt (“forest, wood, grove, thicket; wood, timber”), from Proto-West Germanic *holt, from Proto-Germanic *hultą (“wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *kald-, *klād- (“timber, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *kola-, *klā- (“to beat, hew, break, destroy, kill”).
Cognate with Scots holt (“a wood, copse, thicket”), North Frisian holt (“wood, timber”), West Frisian hout (“timber, wood”), Dutch hout (“wood, timber”), German Holz (“wood”), Icelandic holt (“woodland, hillock”), Old Irish caill (“forest, wood, woodland”), Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “branch, shoot, twig”), Slovene kol ("stake"), Albanian shul (“door latch”). Doublet of hout.

cog

The lair of an animal, especially of an otter.


ciliate

(zoology) Any of many protozoa, of the phylum Ciliophora, that have many cilia.


bivouac

Unadapted borrowing from French bivouac (earlier biouac, bivac), from Alemannic German Biiwacht (“reinforcements of guard or town watch”), from bii- + Wacht (“watch, guard”).

der

(zoology) A structure formed by migratory ants out of their own bodies to protect the queen and larvae.


rut

en-noun

rut (countable and uncountable, plural ruts)

From Middle English rutte (noun) and rutten (verb), from Old French rut (“noise, roar, bellowing”), from Latin rugītus, from rugīre (“to roar”).

der

(zoology) Sexual desire or oestrus of cattle, and various other mammals.


iris

irises (plural)
iris (plural)
irides (plural)

From Middle English [Term?], from Latin īris, from Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris, “rainbow”). Presuming an earlier form *ϝῖρις (*wîris), possibly from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *w(e)ih₁-ro- (“a twist, thread, cord, wire”), from *weh₁y- (“to turn, twist, weave, plait”). If so, it would be cognate to English wire.

(zoology) The inner circle of an oscillated color spot.


emendation

en-noun

emendation (countable and uncountable, plural emendations)

/ˌɛmənˈdeɪʃən/

/ɪˌmɛnˈdeɪʃən/

From Middle English emendatioun, from Latin ēmendātiō; equivalent to emend + -ation.

The genus name Uramyia is an unjustified emendation of Uramya even though it uses a better transliteration of the Greek word μυῖα.

(zoology, taxonomy) An intentional change in the spelling of a scientific name, which is usually not allowed.


chimera

monolith

antonym(s) of “anything composed of very disparate parts”

Variant of Middle English chimere, chymere, & chymera under renewed Latin influence from the 16th century, from French chimère, from Latin Chimaera, from Ancient Greek Χίμαιρα (Khímaira, “fire-breathing mythological monster, fire-spewing Lycian or Cilician mountain”), from χίμαιρα (khímaira, “she-goat”, from χίμαρος (khímaros, “male goat”) + -α (-a)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰey-. In reference to the fish, directly from Latin Chimaera, used by Linnaeus. In reference to organisms with distinct areas of different genetic makeups, a calque of German Chimäre, used by Hans Winkler in 1907.

af

The chimeras […] are an extant group of about 30 species. They have the upper jaw fused with the cranium and a gill cover over the four gill slits. They also have toothy plates that give them a ratlike appearance, thus the common name "ratfish." The group occurs in ocean depths worldwide, where they mainly feed on invertebrates.

2012, Harold M. Tyus, “Diversity 1: Chordates to Sharks”, in Ecology and Conservation of Fishes, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, pages 34–35:

(zoology) Alternative form of chimaera, a cartilaginous marine fish in the subclass Holocephali and especially the order Chimaeriformes, with a blunt snout, long tail, and a spine before the first dorsal fin.


ethology

en-noun

ethology (countable and uncountable, plural ethologies)

/ɪˈθɑl.ə.d͡ʒi/

From the Latin ēthologia (“the art of depicting or imitating character”), from the Ancient Greek ἠθολογία (ēthología, “painting of character, especially by mimic gestures”), from ἠθολόγος (ēthológos, “painting character by mimic gestures”), from ἦθος (êthos, “character, especially moral character”). Equivalent to etho- + -logy.

uder

Holonym: zoology

(zoology) The scientific study of animalian behavior, especially that of nonhuman animals.


corona

en-noun

corona (plural coronas or coronae or (obsolete) coronæ)

coronas (plural)
coronae (plural)
coronæ (obsolete plural)

→ Japanese: コロナ (korona)

The noun is borrowed from Latin corōna (“crown; garland, wreath”), from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, “type of crown; curved object (door handle, tip of a bow, stern of a ship, etc.)”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). The English word is a doublet of crown, korona, koruna, krona, króna, and krone.
The plural form coronae is borrowed from Latin corōnae.
The verb is derived from the noun.

laki

upper or crownlike portion of certain parts of the body

kruunu

It [Epiphanes] has a ciliated corona at its anterior end and tapers to a narrow foot at the posterior end. The cilia of the corona are arranged more or less in two rings, with the mouth in the gap between them.

1979, R[obert] McNeill Alexander, “Rotifers”, in The Invertebrates, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 230:

(biology) Any appendage of an organism that resembles a crown or corona (sense 4.1).

An annular ciliated organ on the head of rotifers, used for locomotion and sweeping food into the mouth.

korona

In coronae of the sea urchin Echinocyamus pusillus in the marine bed overlying the oncoid layer, an original Mg_(0.10–0.13)-calcite was gradually replaced during diagenesis by a Mg_(0.03–0.05)-calcite[…].

1983, D. K. Richter, R. Sedat, “Brackish-water Oncoids Composed of Blue-green and Red Algae from a Pleistocene Terrace near Corinth, Greece”, in Tadeusz M. Peryt, editor, Coated Grains, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, part IV (Oncoids), page 306:

The main body of the test of an echinoid, consisting of ambulacral and interambulacral areas.

A normal Crinoid (Fig. III.) consists of a “crown” (corona) attached by its dorsal (i.e. aboral) extremity to a “stem” (columna), which is fixed to the sea-floor or to some solid body by a “root” (radix).

1900, F[rancis] A[rthur] Bather, J. W. Gregory, E[dwin] S[tephen] Goodrich, “The Crinoidea”, in E[dwin] Ray Lankester, editor, A Treatise on Zoology, part III (The Echinoderma), London: Adam & Charles Black, →OCLC, page 99:

The crown of a crinoid, consisting of a cuplike central body (theca) and a set of arms.


dun

From Irish dún or Scottish Gaelic dùn, from Proto-Celtic *dūnom (“fortress”). Cognate with Welsh dinas (“city”). Doublet of town.

Smaller than the broch was the dun, another type of stone-built 'roundhouse'.

2013, T.J. Clarkson, The Makers of Scotland: Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings, Edinburgh: Birlinn, →ISBN:

(archaeology) A structure in the Orkney or Shetland islands or in Scotland consisting of a roundhouse surrounded by a circular wall; a broch.


gyration

en-noun

gyration (countable and uncountable, plural gyrations)

/ˌd͡ʒaɪˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/

From gyre (“to spin around; to gyrate, to whirl; (rare) to make (something) spin or whirl around; to spin, to whirl”) + -ation (suffix indicating actions or processes). Gyre is from Late Middle English giren (“to turn (something) away; to cause (something) to revolve or rotate; to travel in a circle”), from Old French girer (“to turn”), and directly from its etymon Latin gȳrāre, the present active infinitive of gȳrō (“to turn in a circle, rotate; to circle or revolve around”) (from gȳrus (“circle; circular motion; circuit, course”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “a circle, a ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend; to curve”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).

ĝirado

act of turning or whirling, especially around a fixed axis or centre — see also rotation

(conchology) One of the whorls of a spiral univalve shell.


innervation

en-noun

innervation (countable and uncountable, plural innervations)

/ɪˌnɝˈveɪ.ʃən/

(anatomy, zoology):
The act of innervating or stimulating.

Special activity excited in any part of the nervous system or in any organ of sense or motion; the nervous influence necessary for the maintenance of life, and the functions of the various organs.

The distribution of nerves in an animal, or to any of its parts.


hive

en-verb

hive (third-person singular simple present hives, present participle hiving, simple past and past participle hived)

hives (present singular third-person)
hiving (participle present)
hived (participle past)
hived (past)

From Middle English hyve, from Old English hȳf, from Proto-West Germanic *hūfi (compare Dutch huif (“beehive”), Danish dialect huv (“ship’s hull”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kuHp- (“water vessel”) (compare Latin cūpa (“tub, vat”), Ancient Greek κύπη (kúpē, “gap, hole”), κύπελλον (kúpellon, “beaker”), Sanskrit कूप (kū́pa, “cave”)), from *kew- (“to bend, curve”). Doublet of coupe, cup, and keeve. The computing term was chosen as an in-joke relating to bees; see https://web.archive.org/web/20150715222122/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/08/08/54618.aspx.

der

(entomology) Of insects: to enter or possess a hive.


cataphract

From Latin cataphractes (“suit of armour”), from Ancient Greek κατάφρακτος (katáphraktos, “suit of armour”), from κατα- (kata-, prefix indicating a great degree or intensity) + φρακτός (phraktós, “protected; fenced in”) (from φράσσω (phrássō, “to fortify, secure; to fence in”)) + -της (-tēs, suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being).

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

(ichthyology, by extension, obsolete) An outer covering of some fish resembling armour or plate.


flake

From Middle English flake (“a flake of snow”), from Old English flacca and/or Old Norse flak (“loose or torn piece”) (compare Old Norse flakna (“to flake or chip”)), from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”). Cognate with Norwegian flak (“slice, sliver”, literally “piece torn off”), Swedish flak (“a thin slice”), Danish flage (“flake”), German Flocke (“flake”), Dutch vlak (“smooth surface, plain”) and vlok (“flake”), as well as with Latin plaga (“flat surface, district, region”) and Welsh llech (“slate, tablet”). Doublet of plage.

cog

(archaeology) A prehistoric tool chipped out of stone.


pollinate

From pollin- (compound form of "pollen") + -ate (verb-forming suffix).


ruff

Clipping of ruffle, or possibly from rough.

I ſhall call this bird the painted vulture. […] the head and neck bare of feathers nearly down to the ſtomach, when the feathers begin to cover the ſkin, and ſoon become long and of a ſoft texture, forming a ruff or tippet, in which the bird by contracting his neck can hide that as well as his head: […]

1794, William Bartram, chapter V, in Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of those Regions; together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians. Embellished with Copper-plates, 2nd London edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed by James and Johnson; London: Reprinted for J. Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-yard, →OCLC, pages 148–149:

In the ruffed grouse, the special "ruff" feathers are borne on the lateral branches of the lower cervical feather tract.

2016, Paul A[ustin] Johnsgard, “Introduction to the North American Grouse”, in The North American Grouse: Their Biology and Behavior, Lincoln, Neb.: Zea Books, →ISBN, page 9, column 1:

(ornithology) A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers on or around the neck of a bird.

höyhenkaulus

set of feathers on or around the neck of a bird

The Afghan urial, which is smaller than the Transcaspian urial, is found in the mountains near Iran's eastern frontier, and is the wild sheep of Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Its ruff is black sprinkled with white hairs and its bib is white.

2005, Eskandar Firouz, “Mammals of Iran”, in The Complete Fauna of Iran, London, New York, N.Y.: I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 88:

The creature coming toward me went instantly still. On the other side of the fire, one of them jerked upright and popped its ruff as wide as it would go. The other lunged to the side of the second and clamped one clawed hand around its muzzle.

2017 April, Marie Brennan [pseudonym; Bryn Neuenschwander], chapter 10, in Within the Sanctuary of Wings: A Memoir by Lady Trent, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN, page 151:

(zoology) A collar of lengthened or distinctively coloured fur on or around the neck of an animal.

kaulus

collar of fur on or around the neck of an animal


scraper

ҡырғыс

an instrument by which anything is scraped

Instead, they made finely crafted bone points to haft onto their spears, reserving the use of flint mostly for blades and scrapers.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 218:

An instrument with which anything is scraped.

(archaeology) A prehistoric unifacial tool thought to have been used for hideworking and woodworking.


robust

en-adj

robust (comparative more robust or (uncommon) robuster, superlative most robust or (uncommon) robustest)

more robust (comparative)
robuster (comparative uncommon)
most robust (superlative)
robustest (superlative uncommon)

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

robust association of massive baryonic objects

(chiefly zoology, anthropology, paleontology) Of an individual or skeletal element: strongly built; muscular; not gracile.


rosette

Etymology tree
Proto-Iranian *wardahder.?
Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon)bor.?
Latin rosalbor.
Old French rose
Latin -ittus
Old French -ete
Old French rosete
Middle French rosettebor.
Middle French rosette
French rosetteinflu.
English rosette
Borrowed from Middle French rosette (in sense 15) and (modern) French rosette.

etymon

(zoology) Any structure having a flowerlike form; especially, the group of five broad ambulacra on the upper side of the spatangoid and clypeastroid sea urchins.

ruusuke

zoology: structure having a flowerlike form

(zoology) A flowerlike color marking, as on the leopard.


saturate

en-adj

saturate (comparative more saturate, superlative most saturate)

more saturate (comparative)
most saturate (superlative)

/ˈsæt͡ʃəˌɹeɪt/

Borrowed from Latin saturātus, perfect passive participle of saturāre (“to fill full”), from satur (“full”).

saturate green


secondary

From Middle English secundarie, from Latin secundārius (“of the second class or quality”), from secundus (whence the English second) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary), equivalent to second + -ary; compare the French secondaire, the Italian secondario, the Occitan secundari, the Portuguese secundario, and the Spanish secundario.

der

English numerals#Ordinal numbers
secondary

(ornithology) Any flight feather attached to the ulna (forearm) of a bird.


sprite

→ Japanese: スプライト (supuraito)

→ Russian: спрайт (sprajt)

From Middle English sprite, spryt, spreyte, from Old French esprit (“spirit”), from Latin spiritus. Doublet of spirit, spiritus, spirytus, spright, and esprit.
(computer graphics): First used by Danny Hillis at Texas Instruments in the late 1970s.
(meteorology): An acronym for Stratospheric Perturbations Resulting from Intense Thunderstorm Electrification.

doublet

(entomology) Any of various African damselflies of the genus Pseudagrion (of which, Australian species are named riverdamsels).


trenchant

en-adj

trenchant (comparative more trenchant, superlative most trenchant)

more trenchant (comparative)
most trenchant (superlative)

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenchant, the present participle of trenchier (“to cut”).

The trenchant talonid is a character of some miacids and distinguishes these teeth from the hyaenodontids and oxyaenids.

1971, Thomas H. V. Rich, Deltatheridia, Carnivora, and Condylarthra (Mammalia) of the Early Eocene, Paris Basin, France:

(chiefly archaic) Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.

(zoology, of teeth) Adapted for tearing into flesh.


sett

A variant of set to distinguish various technical senses.

But it is quite sad to reflect that some 4,500 badger setts were already wiped out using poisoned gas between 1975 and 1982. When you consider that an average sett can contain up to 15 animals, parents and cubs, it is easy to imagine the scale of suffering involved.

2006, David Kavanagh, A Country Pillow Book, page 69:

The system of tunnels that is the home of a badger.

(weaving) The number of warp ends per inch in the cloth.

(weaving, England) The number of reeds or splits per inch – one half the number of ends per inch.

Very durable grey granite has been quarried near Aberdeen for more than 300 years, and blocked and dressed paving "setts," kerb and building stones, and monumental and other ornamental work of granite have long been exported from the district to all parts of the world.

1911, “Aberdeen”, in Hugh Chisholm, editor, The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, 11th edition, volume I, Cambridge, Mass., New York, N.Y.: At the University Press, →OCLC, page 49:

Three horses trotted abreast, with the clatter of hoofs on the granite setts, and the yellow, uproarious machine jolted violently behind them, […]

1912, Joseph Conrad, chapter 7, in A Personal Record, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Bros. Publishers, →OCLC:

The old market-square was not very large, a mere bare patch of granite setts, usually with a few fruit-stalls under a wall.

1920, D[avid] H[erbert Richards] Lawrence, chapter 26, in Women in Love, New York, N.Y.: Privately printed for subscribers only, →OCLC:

This path, which consists of some 60,000 setts laid directly into the earth, is perhaps the single most noteworthy 'feature' of the design, lending the whole conception a feeling of unity and coherence, enhancing the sense that one has been absorbed into both the place and the journey through it.

2013 November 16, Tim Richardson, “The JFK memorial at Runnymede is fit to stand forever: Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe's wonderful tribute to JFK at Runnymede hinges on the power of landscape [print edition: A memorial to JFK fit to stand forever]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 2015-07-03, page G8:

A small, square-cut piece of quarried stone used for paving and edging.


recondite

recondite (comparative more recondite, superlative most recondite)

more recondite (comparative)
most recondite (superlative)

Recondite, (aculeus) concealed within the abdomen, seldom exposed to view.

1825, Thomas Say, Say's Entomol., Glossary, 28:

(somewhat archaic) Hidden or removed from view.

(botany, entomology, obsolete, rare, of a structure) Difficult to see, especially because it is hidden by another structure.

Animals of this class are so recondite in their habits... so little known to naturalists beyond the more common species.

1835, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 125, 361:

(chiefly zoology, rare) Avoiding notice (particularly human notice); having a tendency to hide; shy.


pride

en-noun

pride (countable and uncountable, plural prides)

shame

antonym(s) of “a sense of one's own worth”

humility

antonym(s) of “proud or disdainful behavior”

From Middle English pryde, pride, from Old English prȳde, prȳte (“pride”) (compare Old Norse prýði (“bravery, pomp”)), derivative of Old English prūd (“proud”). More at proud. The verb derives from the noun, at least since the 12th century.

A pride of lions often consists of a dominant male, his harem and their offspring, but young adult males 'leave home' to roam about as bachelors pride until able to seize/establish a family pride of their own.

(zoology, collective) A company of lions or other large felines.


pride

From Middle English pryde, from Middle Low German lampride, from Medieval Latin lampreda.

(zoology) The small European lamprey species Petromyzon branchialis.

kleines Neunauge

small European lamprey (Petromyzon branchialis)


spike

From Middle English spike, spyke, spik, from Old Norse spík (“spike, sprig”), from Proto-Germanic *spīkō (“stick, splinter, point”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“to be pointed; sharp point, stick”). Cognate with Icelandic spík (“spike”), Swedish spik (“spike, nail”), Dutch spijker (“nail”), Old English spīcing (“spike”), and Latin spīca (“ear of corn”), which may have influenced some senses.

шпайкове

informal: running shoes with spikes in the soles


sty

From Middle English sty, from Old English stī, stiġ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall”, chiefly in compounds).
Cognate with German Stiege (“wooden crate”), dialectal German Steige (“hen-coop”), Danish sti (“sty, enclosure for swine, sheep, hens, etc.”), Swedish stia (“sty for pigs, geese, etc.”), Norwegian sti (“flock of sheep”), Icelandic stía (“a kennel”).

cog

To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.

1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:

(figurative) A messy, dirty or debauched place.


hyaline

en-noun

hyaline (countable and uncountable, plural hyalines)

From Latin hyalinus, from Koine Greek ὑάλινος (huálinos), from ὕαλος (húalos, “glass”).

(zoology, anatomy) A clear translucent substance in tissues.


articulate

Borrowed from Latin articulātus (“distinct, articulated, jointed”).

bor

They considered articulates to be pre-adapted for an eleutherozoic existence because they possess muscular arms which are potentially of value in crawling and swimming, as in comatulids.

1977, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History):

(zoology) An animal of the subkingdom Articulata.


veil

→ Japanese: ベール (bēru)

→ Korean: 베일 (beil)

From Middle English veil, veyl, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French veil (“sail, veil, shroud”) (Francien Old French voil, French voile), Latin vēlum (“cloth, covering”). Displaced Middle English scleire, scleyre, sleyre, slyre (“veil”) (compare German Schleier). Doublet of velum and voile.

der

(zoology) velum (A circular membrane round the cap of a medusa).


adelocodonic

From Ancient Greek ἄδηλος (ádēlos, “invisible”) + κώδων (kṓdōn, “bell”).

(zoology) Applied to sexual zooids of hydroids, that have a saclike form and do not become free; opposed to phanerocodonic.


adelopod

From Ancient Greek ἄδηλος (ádēlos, “invisible”) + -pod.

af

(zoology) An animal having feet that are not apparent.


shell

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

cog

(entomology) The exoskeleton or wing covers of certain insects.

па́нцыр

entomology: exoskeleton of certain insects


Neolithic

The New Stone Age, from circa 8500 to 4500 BCE.


Neolithic

Tokens are first identified at around the same time as the local peoples changed from a life based on hunting and gathering to one based on agriculture. The tokens, as Schmandt-Besserat says, "were part and parcel of the Neolithic phenomenon; that is, the so-called agricultural revolution." (Before Writing 41).

2001, Duncan J. Melville, “Tokens: the origin of mathematics”, in Mesopotamian Mathematics, archived from the original on 2007-02-06:

... I was fascinated by a pair of stories about a Neolithic girl who wrote the first letter, and invented the first alphabet.

2013 September 14, Jane Shilling, “The Golden Thread: the Story of Writing, by Ewan Clayton, review [print edition: Illuminating language]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), page R28:


Neolithic

For the Neolithics, the stone was flint, and it's still impressive to see what they were able to achieve with it.

2011, Seán Lang, European History For Dummies, page 27:

A person who lived during the New Stone Age.


acontia

From the plural of New Latin acontium, from Ancient Greek ἀκόντιον (akóntion, “little dart”).

der

(zoology) Threadlike defensive organs, composed largely of nettling cells (cnidae), thrown out of the mouth or special pores of certain Actiniae when irritated.


court

→ Bulgarian: корт (kort)

→ French: court

desctree

→ Russian: корт (kort)
→ Armenian: կորտ (kort)

caught (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger)

From Middle English court, from Old French cort, curt, from Latin cōrtem (accusative of cōrs), ultimately from cohors. Doublet of cohort.

مَلْعَب

place for playing the game of tennis and some other ball games

The male Wilson's bird of paradise clears an area of rainforest to create a court in which to perform an elaborate mating dance.

(ornithology) A space prepared and decorated by certain bird species in which to advertise themselves for a mate.


iguana

/ɪ.ɡjuˈɑːnə/

(zoology) Any member of the genus Iguana.


ethnology

en-noun

ethnology (usually uncountable, plural ethnologies)

(anthropology) The branch of anthropology that studies and compares the different human cultures.


supercilium

Borrowed from Latin supercilium (“eyebrow; brow, ridge; pride, arrogance”).

bor

(anatomy, rare) The eyebrow (arch of hair above each eye).

(zoology) A superciliary marking or structure, especially in a bird.


mentum

Learned borrowing from Latin mentum (“the chin”). Doublet of menton.

lbor

(malacology) A chin-like projection below the mouth of certain mollusks.

(entomology) The central part of the labium in insects.


camouflage

en-noun

camouflage (countable and uncountable, plural camouflages)

/ˈkæ.məˌflɑːʒ/

Unadapted borrowing from French camouflage, from camoufler (“to veil, disguise”), alteration (due to camouflet (“smoke blown in one's face”)) of Italian camuffare (“to muffle the head”), from ca- (from Italian capo (“head”)) + muffare (“to muffle”), from Medieval Latin muffula, muffla (“muff”). This Medieval Latin, from which there is also English muffle, is either derived from a Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”)) + *fell (“hide, skin”), from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”), or, an alternate etymology traces it to a Frankish *muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) composed of *mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”) + *fell (“skin, hide”) from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”).

der

Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close[…]above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.

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

(biology) Resemblance of an organism to its surroundings for avoiding detection.


malacology

From French malacologie, contraction of malacozoologie, from the (obsolete) taxonomic name Malacozoa + French -ologie (“-ology”), Malacozoa being in turn from Ancient Greek μαλακός (malakós, “soft”) + ζῷον (zôion, “animal”).
Equivalent to malaco- + -logy.

But the circumstances which the Baron Cuvier† so justly adduces as tending to retard the progress of Malacology in general, seem especially to have contributed to obscure the history of Nautilus Pompilius.

1832, Richard Owen, Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus, page 2:

[…]their chronogeny will long remain one of the most difficult problems in Malacology.

1850, William King, A Monograph of the Permian Fossils of England, published 2014, page 201:

The first steps in the age determination of mammals by the number of annual layers were made when, in ichthyology and malacology, it has already become to routine practice to use annual layers for ageing animals and for back-calculating the growth of individuals.

1995, Galina A. Klevezal, M.V. Mina, Recording Structures of Mammals, page 231:


negroid

en-adj

negroid (comparative more negroid, superlative most negroid)

more negroid (comparative)
most negroid (superlative)

They were human and yet not human. I should say that they were a little higher in the scale of evolution than Ahm, possibly occupying a place of evolution between that of the Neanderthal man and what is known as the Grimaldi race. Their features were distinctly negroid, though their skins were white. A considerable portion of both torso and limbs were covered with short hair, and their physical proportions were in many aspects apelike, though not so much so as were Ahm's. They carried themselves in a more erect position, although their arms were considerably longer than those of the Neanderthal man. As I watched them, I saw that they possessed a language, that they had knowledge of fire and that they carried besides the wooden club of Ahm, a thing which resembled a crude stone hatchet. Evidently they were very low in the scale of humanity, but they were a step upward from those I had previously seen in Caspak.

1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VIII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

(anthropology, dated, offensive) Pertaining to a racial classification of humanity including people indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa and their diaspora in other parts of the world.


negroid

"Round-headed," he muttered. "Brachycephalic, gray-eyed, black-haired, with suggestion of the negroid. Celtic, I presume?"

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

(anthropology, dated, offensive) A person with characteristics of Africans, particularly coiled hair and dark skin.


parasite

/ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/

/ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/

/ˈpɛɹəˌsaɪt/

From Middle French parasite, from Latin parasitus, from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parásitos, “person who eats at the table of another”), from noun use of adjective meaning "feeding beside", from παρά (pará, “beside”) + σῖτος (sîtos, “food”).

parasiet

(biology) organism that exists by stealing resources from another organism

Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.

...and the mistletoe crept round many of the oaks—that pleasant parasite, whose associations belong rather to the hearth and lighted hall than to its native branches.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 154:

It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.

2013 March 20, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 2017-01-04, page 83:

(biology) An organism that lives on or in another organism of a different species, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost to that other organism.

He lacks, however, even the basic Dr. Kildare lingo about medical issues. For instance, he regularly misidentifies poppers as amyl nitrate, instead of amyl nitrite — two forms of heart medicine with different affects ^([sic]). Salmonella, a bacteria, is not usually classified as a parasite. And he mistakenly writes, "lenti means slow" in the lentiviruses. ("Lenti" means lens-shaped, biologists classify by structure, not by behavior.)

1987 December 27, Charley Shively, “AIDS In The Mind Of The Left And The Mainstream”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 24, page 9:

Select a disease class
Virus: Fastest evolution, Most affected by environment, Bonus to infectivity
Bacteria: Medium evolution, Normally affected by environment, Bonus to drug resistance
Parasite: Slowest evolution, Least affected by environment, Low visibility

2008 July 14, Dark Realm Studios, Pandemic II, Web:

Any germs or parasites on the surface of the meat that you could conceivably wash off are gonna die as soon as you cook it, so don't bother washing it.

2020 November 20, Adam Ragusea, 1:13 from the start, in Why People Wash Meat (or Don't):

(informal, specifically) An internal parasite that is an animal or protist.

[…] parasiting and aerial refueling as range-extension measures. Second, parasiting would be exorbitantly expensive, because each parasite bomber would need its own carrier. Two bombers could be serviced by a single tanker, however,[…]

2019 January 24, Michael E. Brown, Flying Blind: The Politics of the U.S. Strategic Bomber Program, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 170:

(aviation) A component of a composite aircraft which is carried aloft and air-launched by a larger carrier aircraft or mother ship to support the primary mission of the carrier; a parasite aircraft.


anonym

Coined or borrowed around 1812, from French anonyme, from Ancient Greek ἀνώνυμος (anṓnumos, “without name”).

der

(zoology) A mere name; a name resting upon no diagnosis or other recognized basis.


marble

en-noun

marble (countable and uncountable, plural marbles)

From Middle English marble, marbre, from Anglo-Norman and Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Ancient Greek μάρμαρος (mármaros), perhaps related to μαρμάρεος (marmáreos, “gleaming”). Much of the early classical marble came from the 'Marmaris' sea above the Aegean. The forms from French replaced Old English marma, which had previously been borrowed from Latin.

The Elgin Marbles were originally part of the temple of the Parthenon.

[I]t was a portrait of the Library, though not strictly correct as to its contents, since all the best of the marbles displayed in various parts of the house were brought into the painting by the artist, who made it up into a picturesque composition according to his own taste.

1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson, published 1986, page 164:

(in the plural, archaeology) Statues made from marble.


clavicle

Borrowed from Middle French clavicule, from Latin clāvicula (“a small key”), diminutive of clāvis (“a key”).

The Voluta is a ſimple ſhell, having no hinge, formed of one piece, and of a figure approaching to conic, but short; the clavicle being uſually depreſſed, in all very ſhort: the mouth is long, perpendicular, and narrow: the animal inhabiting this ſhell is a limax.

1752, John Hill, “Voluta”, in An History of Animals. […], London: Printed for Thomas Osborne, […], →OCLC, page 137:

(obsolete, conchology) The upper part of a spiral shell.


pedicel

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

(zoology) A narrow stalk-like body part connecting specific segments in certain insects and some other arthropods.

A petiole; the connection between the thorax and abdomen of an insect of suborder Apocrita.

Spiders have the body clearly divided into two pieces which are joined by a narrow stalk, the pedicel.

1996, Michael J. Roberts, Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe, Collins, page 10:

The connection between the cephalothorax and abdomen of a spider.

The second segment of the antenna of an insect, between the scape and the flagellum.

Table 5 lists 14 does with 1 or both antlers and 4 does and 1 doe fawn with incipient antler pedicels like those on male fawns.

1963, Journal of Mammalogy, American Society of Mammalogists, page 87:

(zoology) The segment of an antler that attaches to the head of a cervid.


coterie

The coterie was located in the middle of our wheat field.

The population of each coterie constantly changes over a period of a few months or years, by death, birth, and emigration. But the coterie boundary remains about the same, being learned by each prairie dog born into it.

2000, Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, page 473:

The odd part of prairie dog life is that this friendly state exists only among the members of each coterie, and does not extend between coteries.

2001, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, The Emperor's Embrace: The Evolution of Fatherhood:

Young prairie dogs in a coterie are brothers and sisters. They have the same father and sometimes the same mother. To find a mate from a different family, young prairie dogs must travel to a new area.

2009, Miriam Aronin, The Prairie Dog's Town: A Perfect Hideaway, page 22:


piranha

First attested in 1869. The term entered English either via Portuguese piranha or Spanish piraña, from Old Tupi pirãîa.

(ichthyology) Any of the carnivorous or frugivorous freshwater fish living in South American rivers and belonging to the subfamily Serrasalminae.


matrilineal

/ˌmeɪtɹɪˈlɪnɪəl/

Kerala traditionally has matrilineal inheritance.

Enkidu expresses the values of nature, matrilineal conservatism, and the populism of the assembly, the assembly of village elders from the days before military dictatorship.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 191:

(anthropology) Tracing descent only through female ancestors.


anthropomorphism

anthropomorphism (countable and uncountable, plural anthropomorphisms)

/ˌænθɹəpəˈmɔɹfɪzəm/

Coined in the mid-1700s. From Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos, “man, human”) and μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”). By surface analysis, anthropo- + -morphism.

surf

Literature is full of examples of anthropomorphism, especially in children’s stories, from The Wind in the Willows to Watership Down.

2016 January 14, Stephen Ross, “What you see in this picture says more about you than the kangaroo”, in The Guardian:

The attribution of human characteristics and behavior to something not human.

antropomorfisme

the attribution or ascription of human characteristics to something not human

(theology) The attribution of human characteristics to divine entities.


immaculate

en-adj

immaculate (comparative more immaculate, superlative most immaculate)

more immaculate (comparative)
most immaculate (superlative)

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Museo del Prado

From Late Middle English immaculat, immaculate (“blameless; flawless, spotless; specifically of the Virgin Mary: pure, undefiled”), borrowed from Latin immaculātus (“unstained”), from im- (negative prefix) + maculātus (“stained, spotted; defiled, polluted; (figurative) dishonoured”), the perfect passive participle of maculō (“to spot, stain; to defile, pollute; (figurative) to dishonour”), from macula (“a blemish, spot, stain; (figurative) blot on one’s character, fault”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *smh₂-tló-m (“wiping (?)”), from *smeh₁- (“to rub; to smear”). The word displaced Middle English unwemmed (“pure, untainted”). See also -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
cognates
* Catalan immaculat
* Italian immacolato, immaculato (obsolete)
* Middle French immaculé (modern French immaculé)
* Portuguese imaculado
* Spanish inmaculado

ref

From the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

perfek

containing no mistakes — see also flawless

(botany, zoology, especially entomology) Lacking blotches, spots, or other markings.

täplätön

lacking blotches, spots, or other markings — see also unspotted


bicaudal

From bi- + caudal, from Latin cauda (“tail”).


policeman

→ French: policeman

→ Maori: pirihimana

→ Welsh: plismon

(entomology) Any skipper of the genus Coeliades.


carpenter

From Middle English carpenter, from Anglo-Norman carpenter (compare Old French charpentier), from Late Latin carpentārius (“a carpenter”), from Latin carpentārius (“a wagon-maker, carriage-maker”), from Latin carpentum (“a two-wheeled carriage, coach, or chariot, a cart”), from Gaulish carbantos, from Proto-Celtic *karbantos (“chariot, war chariot”), probably related to Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”). Doublet of carpintero. More at car.
Displaced native Old English trēowwyrhta (literally “tree worker”).

ncog

The large, stout African bees are carpenters (Xylocopa), making small tunnels in timber, housing few individuals.

1968, Elliot C. G. Pinhey, Introduction to insect study in Africa, page 146:


suine

en-noun

suine (countable and uncountable, plural suines)

Primitive suines appeared in the Eocene.

1983, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, volume 7, page 574:

(zoology) (strictly) An even-toed ungulate belonging to the taxonomic subfamily Suinae, which is comprised of modern pigs (genus Sus) and their close relatives, both living and extinct.

(zoology) (broadly) An even-toed ungulate belonging to the suborder Suina.


polyeidism

(zoology) The quality or state of being polyeidic.


ounce

From Middle French once, from Old French lonce (“lynx”), by false division (the l was thought to be the article), from Italian lonza, ultimately from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx, “lynx”). Doublet of onza and lynx.

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

The ounce, a leopard-like creature, is dreaded for its depredations by the Indians of Brazil.

1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 8, page 235:

(cryptozoology) Synonym of onza, a particularly aggressive cougar or jaguarundi in Mexican folklore.


plague

plague (countable and uncountable, plural plagues)

From Middle English plage, borrowed from Old French plage, from Latin plāga (“blow, wound”), from plangō (“to strike”). Cognate with Middle Dutch plāghe (> Dutch plaag), plāghen (> Dutch plagen); Middle Low German plāge; Middle High German plāge, pflāge (> German Plage); plāgen (> German plagen); Swedish plåga; French plaie, Occitan plaga. Doublet of plaga. Displaced native Old English wōl.

(ornithology) A group of common grackles.


alterity

alterity (countable and uncountable, plural alterities)

Nominal declensions, verbal case endings, gerundival constructions, in short, the full range of grammatical alterations—for which Sanskrit has a particular genius and meticulous order—announce language itself as a field of alterity.

2014, Dan Lusthaus, Buddhist Phenomenology, →ISBN:

(philosophy, anthropology) Otherness; the entity in contrast to which an identity is constructed.


Chaldean

From Ancient Greek Χαλδαῖος (Khaldaîos).

Chaldean Catholic Church
Chaldean Catholic Church

A member of the Chaldean Catholic Church.


Chaldean

The West Semitic language of the ancient Chaldeans.

Biblical Aramaic
Biblical Aramaic#English

(historical) Synonym of Biblical Aramaic (now considered a misnomer).

Chaldean Neo-Aramaic
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic#English


alopecoid

From Ancient Greek ἀλώπηξ (alṓpēx, “fox”) + -oid.

In the smaller Alopecoids, such as C. zerda, the temporal ridges remain permanently separate, and inclose a wide lyrate sagittal area, the ridges themselves not being very strongly marked; […]

1880, The Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London, page 250:

(zoology) An animal that resembles a fox.


dichromatic

en-adj

dichromatic (comparative more dichromatic, superlative most dichromatic)

more dichromatic (comparative)
most dichromatic (superlative)

From di- + Ancient Greek χρῶμα (khrôma, “color”) + -ic.

(zoology) having two independent channels for conveying color information in the eye.


Iron Age

/ˈʌɪən eɪdʒ/

From iron + age, in the mythological sense a calque of Latin saecula ferrea, aetas ferrea; in the archaeological sense a calque of Danish jernalder.

(archaeology) A level of culture in which humans used iron and the technology of ironworking. (Estimated to have begun in Europe about 1100 BC)


adnate

adnate (comparative more adnate, superlative most adnate)

more adnate (comparative)
most adnate (superlative)

From Latin adnatus, past participle of variant form of agnascor (“born or growing at or upon”).

It differs from N. eleutherus by possessing a more adnate adipose fin and more prominent saddles and from N. albater by having 8 soft pectoral rays, a submarginal adipose bar, and no prominent basicaudal bar (Douglas 1972).

1988, Henry W. Robison, Thomas M Buchanan, Fishes of Arkansas, page 312:

(zoology) Growing with one side adherent to a stem; applied to the lateral zooids of corals and other compound animals. in fish, having the eyes fused and unable to rotate independently


spotless

spotless (comparative more spotless, superlative most spotless)

more spotless (comparative)
most spotless (superlative)

From Middle English spotles, equivalent to spot + -less.


sucker

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

(ichthyology) Any fish in the family Catostomidae of North America and eastern Asia, which have mouths modified into downward-pointing, suckerlike structures for feeding in bottom sediments.


clever

clever (comparative cleverer or more clever, superlative cleverest or most clever)

cleverer (comparative)
more clever (comparative)
cleverest (superlative)
most clever (superlative)

dull

antonym(s) of “smart, intelligent or witty”

ineffectual

antonym(s) of “resourceful, perhaps cunning”

→ German: clever

→ Limburgish: klevver

From East Anglian dialectal English cliver (“expert at seizing”), from Middle English cliver (“tenacious”).
* perhaps from Old English *clifer, clibbor (“clinging”);
* or perhaps from Dutch, Low German, or East/Saterland Frisian (compare kluftich (“clever, prudent”), probably derived from Proto-West Germanic *kleuban (“to cleave, split”));
* or dialectal Norwegian klover (“ready, skillful”), itself borrowed from Middle Low German klever, related to kleven (“to stick”), from Old Saxon klibōn, from Proto-West Germanic *klibēn, related to the Old English word above;
* possibly influenced by Old English clifer (“claw, hand”) (compare clawian (“to claw”)).
Related to cleave. Perhaps influenced by Welsh celfydd (“talented, dexterous, expert”).

cog

When a clever man is out hunting and comes across the tracks of, say, a kangaroo, he follows them along and talks to the footprints all the time for the purpose of injecting magic into the animal which made them.

1904, Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, volume XXXVIII, page 255:

Prior to this, the two women, who were “clever,” and possessed a certain amount of magical “power,”[…].

1947, Oceania,, volumes 16-17, page 330:

Fred is the clever fellow or tribal doctor who practises with the Kuku-Yalanji people. The tribal doctor’s work includes curing sickness, finding out the causes of death, predicting the future and making and stopping rain.

1991, John & Sue Erbacher, Aborigines of the Rainforest:

(anthropology, of an Aboriginal Australian) Possessing magical abilities.


tertiary

English numerals#Ordinal numbers
Peterhouse, Cambridge
University of Cambridge

PIE word
 *tréyes
Borrowed from the Latin tertiārius (“of the third part or rank”), from tertius (“third”) (from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós, whence English third) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French tertiaire.

bor

The primary, secondary, and tertiary wing feathers (remiges) of adult mourning doves are shed and replaced yearly in an orderly sequence, so flight is possible during molt. […] Little is known about the shedding sequence of the secondary or tertiary feathers or the related coverts. If it is similar to that of passerines, however, loss of the outermost tertiary feather occurs coincident with loss of the fifth or sixth primary[…]. The molt then would continue sequentially until the last or innermost tertiary was shed and replaced.

1993, Ralph E. Mirarchi, “Growth, Maturation, and Molt”, in Thomas S. Baskett, Mark W. Sayre, Roy E. Tomlinson, Ralph E. Mirarchi, editors, Ecology and Management of the Mourning Dove (Wildlife Management Institute Book), Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, →ISBN, page 141:

(ornithology) Of quills: growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial.


tertiary

English numerals#Ordinal numbers
Lay Carmelites
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Saint-Étienne Cathedral
University of Cambridge

The feathers [of the least sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)], black centrally, are margined with bright rufous, especially on the back, scapulars, and tertiaries, and with white tips on the latter; the stripes on the middle of the throat and chest are indistinct or almost absent, more evident on sides of breast.

1955, Thomas S. Roberts, “Key to Shore Birds”, in Manual for the Identification of the Birds of Minnesota and Neighboring States, rev. edition, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, published 1980, →OCLC, page 583:

Coincident with the dropping out of the fifth or sixth primary is the molt of the outermost tertiary, followed by the adjoining tertiary, and then the third tertiary, which in most passerine birds is the last or innermost.

1956, Olin Sewall Pettingill, [Jr.], A Laboratory and Field Manual of Ornithology, 3rd rev. edition, Minneapolis, Minn.: Burgess Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 142:

(ornithology) A tertiary feather; a tertial.


stable

From Middle English stable, borrowed from Anglo-Norman stable, singular derived from the plural Latin stab(u)la (“dwellings, stables”).

close the stable door after the horse has been stolen

close the stable door after the horse has bolted

lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen

lock the stable door after the horse has bolted

shut the stable door after the horse has bolted

(Scotland) A set of advocates; a barristers' chambers.

A group of people who are looked after, mentored, or trained in one place or for a particular purpose or profession.


stable

en-verb

stable (third-person singular simple present stables, present participle stabling, simple past and past participle stabled)

stables (present singular third-person)
stabling (participle present)
stabled (participle past)
stabled (past)

S.R. Pacific No. 34010 Sidmouth leaves Wembley Central to stable the stock of its excursion from the S.R. at North Wembley; the train was run in connection with a Wembley football event on April 30, 1960.

1960 July, Trains Illustrated, page 385, photo caption:

Great Western Railway has placed its Class 143 Pacer fleet into warm storage, with the majority stabled at Exeter.

2020 April 22, “Fleet News: Passenger operators put parts of fleet into warm storage...”, in Rail, page 25:

(rail transport, transitive) To park (a rail vehicle).


stable

en-adj

stable (comparative stabler or more stable, superlative stablest or most stable)

stabler (comparative)
more stable (comparative)
stablest (superlative)
most stable (superlative)

From Middle English stable, from Anglo-Norman stable, stabel, from Latin stabilis (“firm, steadfast”) (itself from stare (“stand”) + -abilis (“able”)). Displaced native Old English staþolfæst.

You should download the 1.9 version of that video editing software: it is the latest stable version. The newer beta version has some bugs.

(computing) Of software: established to be relatively free of bugs, as opposed to a beta version.


anatine

anatine (comparative more anatine, superlative most anatine)

more anatine (comparative)
most anatine (superlative)

From Latin anatīnus, from anas, anatis (“a duck”) + -inus (“-ine”).

(zoology) Being of the family Anatidae, comprising the swans, geese, and ducks.


pectus

(anatomy, zoology) The breast, especially of a bird.


scrotal

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

Learned borrowing from New Latin scrōtālis. Equivalent to scrotum + -al.

lbor

Male maturity is evident from descent of the testes; adult males are scrotal year-round, whereas subadult males are partially or nonscrotal.

2008, Melissa A. Hillegass et al., “The influence of sex and sociality on parasite loads in an African ground squirrel”, in Behavioral Ecology, volume 19, number 5, →DOI, pages 1006–1011:


shank

From Middle English schanke, from Old English sċanca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skankō, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, Low German Schanke, German Schenkel (“shank, leg”), Danish skank, Norwegian skank, Swedish skänkel), from *skankaz (compare Old Norse skakkr (“wry, crooked”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (compare Middle Irish scingim (“I spring”), Ancient Greek σκάζω (skázō, “to limp”).

(ornithology, colloquial) A redshank or greenshank, various species of Old World wading birds in the genus Tringa having distinctly colored legs.


artifact

Alteration of artefact, from Italian artefatto, from Latin arte (“by skill”) (ablative of ars (“art”)) + factum (“thing made”) (from facio (“to make, do”)).

The dig produced many Roman artifacts.

Holy shit! It is fascinating when a country’s culture seeps even into their math lessons, although it’s not really surprising. As a British child, our math questions were “if Johnny has two artifacts and Dinesh has two artifacts, then how many artifacts is Johnny about to have?” The answer, of course, “all the artifacts, Dinesh’s family can come visit them in a British museum whenever they’re in town.”

2017, Tim Carvell [et al.], “North Korea”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 21, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:

(archaeology) An object, such as a tool, ornament, or weapon of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.


horizon

Inherited from Middle English orisonte, orisoun, from Middle French horizon, horizonte, from Old French orisonte, orison, via Latin horizōn, from Ancient Greek ὁρίζων (horízōn), from ὅρος (hóros, “boundary”).

(archaeology, chiefly US) A cultural sub-period or level within a more encompassing time period.


promotion

en-noun

promotion (countable and uncountable, plural promotions)

/pɹəˈmoʊʃən/

/pɹəˈməʊʃən/

Late Middle English, from Old French promocion, from Late Latin promotio, from Latin promoveo (“I move forward”).

By simple promotion and remotion, assisted by some flexure and extension, the distal spines of each would reach and scratch the substratum and, on remotion, sweep coarse particles posteriorly and dorsally.

1995, Cladocera as Model Organisms in Biology, →ISBN, page 63:

In other arthropods, promotion-remotion of the leg is accomplished at other joints. For example, in spiders promotion-remotion occurs at the coxa-trochanter joint, insects utilize the body-coxa joint, and […]

2008, John L. Capinera, Encyclopedia of Entomology, volume 4, →ISBN, page 3326:

(zoology, chiefly entomology) Forward motion. (Contrast remotion.)


radiate

en-adj

radiate (comparative more radiate, superlative most radiate)

more radiate (comparative)
most radiate (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin radiatus, past participle of radiare (“to radiate, furnish with spokes, give out rays, radiate, shine”), from radius (“a spoke, ray”).


hinge

en-verb

hinge (third-person singular simple present hinges, present participle hinging or hingeing, simple past and past participle hinged)

hinges (present singular third-person)
hinging (participle present)
hingeing (participle present)
hinged (participle past)
hinged (past)

From Middle English henge, from Old English *henġ (“hinge”), compare Old English henġe- in henġeclif (“overhanging cliff”), Old English henġen (“hanging; that upon which a thing is hung”), from Proto-West Germanic *hangiju. Akin to Scots heenge (“hinge”), Saterland Frisian Hänge (“hinge”), Dutch heng (“door handle”), Low German henge (“a hook, hinge, handle”), Middle Dutch henghe, hanghe (“a hook, hinge, handle”), Scots hingel (“any attachment by which something is hung or fastened”), Dutch hengel (“hook”), geheng (“hinge”), hengsel (“handle”), Danish hængsel (“hinge”), dialectal German Hängel (“hook, joint”), German Henkel (“handle, hook”), Old English hōn (“to hang”), hangian (“to cause to hang, hang up”). More at hang.

cog

The flake hinged at an inclusion in the core.

(transitive, archaeology) The breaking off of the distal end of a knapped stone flake whose presumed course across the face of the stone core was truncated prematurely, leaving not a feathered distal end but instead the scar of a nearly perpendicular break.


spatula

en-noun

spatula (plural spatulas or spatulae or spatulæ)

spatulas (plural)
spatulae (plural)
spatulæ (plural)

/ˈspæt͡ʃʊlə/

/ˈspæt͡ʃələ/

Borrowed from Latin spatula (“a flat piece”), the diminutive form of spatha (“broad or flat tool”), from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “a broad wood or metal blade”). Doublet of spauld; compare spatha and spathe.

der

The third instars are similar to other members of the genus except for a three-pronged spatula (typically two-pronged) and five lateral papillae (typically four) and with a nonbristled first instar.

2015 November 2, Donald B. Thomas, John A. Goolsby, “Morphology of the Preimaginal Stages of Lasioptera donacis Coutin (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), a Candidate Biocontrol Agent for Giant Arundo Cane”, in Psyche, →DOI:

(entomology) A sclerotized, T-shaped plate in the prothorax of larvae of flies belonging to family Cecidomyiidae, the gall midges.


vagrant

From Late Middle English vagraunt (“person without proper employment; person without a fixed abode, tramp, vagabond”) [and other forms], probably from Anglo-Norman vagarant, wakerant, waucrant (“vagrant”) [and other forms] and Old French walcrant, waucrant (“roaming, wandering”) [and other forms], perhaps influenced by Latin vagārī, the present active infinitive of vagor (“to ramble, stroll about; to roam, rove, wander”). Old French walcrant is the present participle of vagrer, wacrer, walcrer (“to wander, wander about as a vagabond”) [and other forms], from Frankish *walkrōn (“to wander about”), the frequentative form of *walkōn (“to walk; to wander; to stomp, trample; to full (make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing)”), from Proto-Germanic *walkōną (“to roll about, wallow; to full”), *walkaną (“to turn, wind; to toss; to roll, roll about; to wend; to walk; to wander; to trample; to full”),
from Proto-Indo-European *walg-, *walk-, *welgʰ-, *welk-, *wolg- (“to turn, twist; to move”), ultimately from *welH- (“to turn; to wind”).
The English word is cognate with Latin valgus (“bandy-legged, bow-legged”), Middle Dutch walken (“to knead; to full”), Old English wealcan (“to roll”), ġewealcan (“to go; to walk about”), Old High German walchan, walkan (“to move up and down; to press together; to full; to walk; to wander”), Old Norse valka (“to wander”). See further at walk.

cog

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

(biology, especially ornithology) An animal, typically a bird, found outside its species' usual range.

迷鳥

animal found outside its species’ usual range


didymous

en-adj

didymous (comparative more didymous, superlative most didymous)

more didymous (comparative)
most didymous (superlative)

Modern Latin, from Ancient Greek δίδυμος (dídumos, “twin”).

(botany, zoology) Twin, twinned; growing or occurring in pairs.