nibling

Blend of nephew or niece + sibling, coined by the American linguist Samuel Elmo Martin (1924–2009) in 1951.

Aunts and uncles are concerned with the education of their niblings and may play a minor role in the ultimate arrangement of a marriage for the nibling.

1967, Ben J. Wallace, Gaddang Agriculture: The Focus of Ecological and Cultural Change (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation), Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin, →OCLC:

Very recently I heard an informant respond with cousin to my question about the “child of nibling” position.

1971, Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society, volume 3, Urbana, Ill.: Steward Anthropological Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 144:

In the following line we find Q¹P²; that is, child of a parent of a parent; this is the relation that nuncles (aunts or uncles) bear to niblings (nieces or nephews).

1974, Roger W. Shuy, Charles-James N. Bailey, editors, Towards Tomorrow’s Linguistics, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, →ISBN, page 125:

She [Viola Edmundson Garfield] was close to her family, particularly her younger “siblings and niblings.”

1988, Jay Miller, “Viola Edmundson Garfield”, in Ute Gacs, Aisha Khan, Jerrie McIntyre, Ruth Weinberg, editors, Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies, Illini Books edition, Urbana, Chicago, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, published 1989, →ISBN, page 112:

Kin selection was strongest for choices between sibling and friend, decreasing across sibling vs. nibling, nibling vs. friend, and nibling vs. cousin, [...]

1998 May, Daniel J. Kruger, “Male Relatives Benefit More from Kin Selecting Tendencies Enhancing Social Status”, in Daniel J. Kruger, PhD, University of Michigan, archived from the original on 2019-06-17:

Most distinctive of the system, therefore, were the two terms for parental siblings and for niblings, which occurred only among the Salish and neighboring Southern Nootkans.

1999, Jay Miller, “Body”, in Lushootseed Culture and the Shamanic Odyssey: An Anchored Radiance, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 127:

But, it is my niblings who taught me how to love.

2005, Sean M. Theriault, The Power of the People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, and Voter Retribution (Parliaments and Legislatures), Columbus, Oh.: Ohio State University Press, →ISBN, page x:

Cousins are informally referred to by the same terms used for siblings, but officially one has an aunt/uncle-nibling relationship with one's cousins.

2005 February, N. J. Enfield, “The Body as a Cognitive Artifact in Kinship Representations: Hand Gesture Diagrams by Speakers of Lao”, in Current Anthropology, volume 46, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 51–81; quoted in N. J. Enfield, “Diagramming”, in The Anatomy of Meaning: Speech, Gesture, and Composite Utterances (Language, Culture, and Cognition; 8), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 2009, →ISBN, part II (Illustrative Components of Moves), page 161:

(originally chiefly anthropology, often in the plural) Used especially as a gender-neutral term: the child of one's sibling or sibling-in-law; one's nephew or niece.

George Murdock
Samuel Martin (linguist)
Ward Goodenough

pag-umangkon

gender-neutral term for child of one's sibling or sibling-in-law


velum

Borrowed from Latin vēlum (“a cloth, covering, awning, curtain, veil”). Doublet of veil.

bor

a thin membrane resembling a veil or curtain, such as:

(malacology) a locomotory and feeding organ provided with cilia found in the larval stage of bivalves

(zoology) a annular membrane, typically bordering a cavity, especially in certain molluscs, medusae, and other invertebrates


xanthism

(biology, zoology) A yellowish colouring of pigments in hair, skin, feathers, etc.


xiphioid

en-adj

xiphioid (comparative more xiphioid, superlative most xiphioid)

more xiphioid (comparative)
most xiphioid (superlative)

From ξιφία (xiphía), from ξίφος (xíphos, “sword”) + -oid.

(zoology) Resembling or related to the genus Xiphias (swordfish).

(zoology) Resembling or related to the family Xiphiidae (a group of fish).


xiphioid

(zoology) Any member of the genus Xiphias or family Xiphiidae.


xiphosuran

(zoology) Any member of the order Xiphosura, including horseshoe crabs.


xiphosuran

(zoology) Of or pertaining to the order Xiphosura.


perrisodactyl

/pɛɹɪsəʊˈdæktɪl/

(zoology): Any member of the mammal order Perissodactyla, including the horse, tapir, and rhinoceros


pollicate

(zoology) Of insects: having a curved projection or spine on the inner side of a leg joint.


byre

From Middle English bire, bier, byr, from Old English bȳre.

It was here in the kitchen, in the passage,
In the mews in the harn in the byre in the market-place [...]

1935, T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Part II:

’Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared.[…]’

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

The visitors came up the narrow road through the forest from the south; they filled the spare-rooms, they bunked out in cow byres and barns.

1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust, page 9 (2001 Perennial Edition)

(chiefly British) A barn, especially one used for keeping cattle in.

حَظِيرَة

a barn, especially one used for keeping cattle


carinate

carinate (comparative more carinate, superlative most carinate)

more carinate (comparative)
most carinate (superlative)

(ornithology) Of a bird, having a keeled breastbone allowing the attachment of flight muscles.


parietal

From Latin parietālis, from pariēs (“wall”).

(archaeology) A flat Roman wall tile with roughened surface, used as a base for plasterwork.


pallet

(zoology) One of a pair of shelly plates that protect the siphon tubes of certain bivalves, such as the Teredo.


parenchyma

en-noun

parenchyma (countable and uncountable, plural parenchymas or parenchymata)

parenchymas (plural)
parenchymata (plural)

/pəˈɹɛŋ.kɪm.ə/

From Ancient Greek παρέγχῠμα (parénkhuma, “anything poured in beside”), from πᾰρᾰ- (para-, “beside”) + ἔγχῠμα (énkhuma, “instillation, content of a vessel”), given by the Greek anatomist Erasistratus to the peculiar substance of the lungs, liver, kidneys, and spleen, as if formed separately by the veins that run into them.

af

[I]n a Sponge, the Parenchyma, it seems, is but a kind of mucous gelly, which is very easily and cleerly wash'd away.

1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XXII:

(zoology) Cellular tissue lying between the body wall and the organs of invertebrate animals lacking a coelom, such as flatworms.


radiocarbon dating

en-noun

radiocarbon dating (usually uncountable, plural radiocarbon datings)

(physics, archaeology, paleontology) A method of estimating the age of an artifact or biological vestige based on the relative amounts of the different isotopes of carbon present in a sample.


carina

Borrowed from Latin carīna (“keel”). Doublet of careen and carene.

(zoology) The keel of the breastbone of birds.


canopic jar

From Latin Canōpicus, from Canopus + -icus.

Had Radulph Tubbs such luck with tombs it is probable that he […] would have uncovered only the four canopic jars containing, respectively, the large intestines, small intestines, heart, and liver.

1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 120:

(archaeology) An Egyptian pottery container in which the entrails of a mummy have been placed.


halfbeak

(zoology) Any slender, marine fish of the family Hemiramphidae, having the upper jaw much shorter than the lower, the balahoos or ballyhoos.

migbec

any slender, marine fish of the family Hemiramphidae


headhunter

→ German: Headhunter m

Theirs was the spirit which upheld Darwin among the gauchos of the Argentine or Wallace among the head-hunters of Malaya.

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

(anthropology) A person who practises headhunting, the taking and preserving of a person's head after killing them.


stela

stela (plural stelas or stelae or steles)

stelas (plural)
stelae (plural)
steles (plural)

From Latin stēla, from Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē). Doublet of stele.

In the courts of the houses lie many round stelæ, or pillars, once placed on the graves of the Athenians.

1776, R. Chandler, Trav. Greece, VIII 35:

He erected a stela, with an inscription in the sacred character, to commemorate his successes.

1837, J. G. Wilkinson, Manners & Customs of the Anc. Egyptians, I ii 101:

The upright blocks or stelas are among the most curious parts of the present ruin.

1876, S. Manning, Land of Pharaohs, section 203:

Thothmes I. set up two stelæ near the Euphrates.

1893, E. A. T. W. Budge, Mummy, section 30:

A shore excursion had been arranged for the passengers who were interested in visiting the stelae of San Ignacio.

(archaeology) an obelisk or upright stone pillar, usually as a primitive commemoration or gravestone


equilateral

ewesydig

referring to a polygon all of whose sides are of equal length

(zoology) Having the two sides equal, as a surface divisible by a longitudinal median line into two halves of the same form.

(zoology) Having all the convolutions of the shell in one plane, chiefly of foraminifers.


bullet ant

From bullet + ant.
From being an ant having a poisonous stinging bite, whose pain is described to be comparable to being hit by a bullet.

(entomology, informal) A stinging ant (Paraponera clavata) the toxin of which causes intense pain for about a day, native to Central and South America.


cilium

(entomology) One of the fine hairs along an insect's wing.


squirrel monkey

squirrel monkey (plural squirrel monkeys)

(zoology, primatology) Any of several small New World monkeys, of the genus Saimiri, that live in Central and South America.


dabble

en-verb

dabble (third-person singular simple present dabbles, present participle dabbling, simple past and past participle dabbled)

dabbles (present singular third-person)
dabbling (participle present)
dabbled (participle past)
dabbled (past)

From earlier dable, equivalent to dab + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”); cognate with Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”).

der

When a duck dabbles its bill in mud, it is using the lamellae (transverse plates) on the inner edges of its bill as a highly efficient filter. As the duck dabbles, its tongue acts as a piston, sucking water or mud into the mouth and driving it out again. Only the edible particles are left behind on the lamellae.

2002, [Maurice Burton; Robert Burton], “Mallard”, in International Wildlife Encyclopedia, 3rd edition, volumes 11 (LEO–MAR), Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, page 1525:

(intransitive, of waterfowl) To feed without diving, by submerging the head and neck underwater to seek food, often also tipping up the tail straight upwards above the water.

grondelen

of waterfowl, to feed with the head underwater without diving


patriarchy

en-noun

patriarchy (countable and uncountable, plural patriarchies)

/ˈpeɪ̯tɹɪɑːkɪ/

/ˈpætɹɪɑːkɪ/

From Latin patriarchia, from Byzantine Greek πατριαρχία (patriarkhía), from Koine Greek πατριάρχης (patriárkhēs, “patriarch”), from πατρία (patría) and ἄρχω (árkhō). By surface analysis, patri- + -archy.

der

(anthropology, history) A social system in which the father is head of the household, having authority over women and children, and in which lineage is traced through the male line.


monumental

en-adj

monumental (comparative more monumental, superlative most monumental)

more monumental (comparative)
most monumental (superlative)

Borrowed from Late Latin monumentālis, from Latin monumentum; equivalent to monument + -al.

Monumental construction.


mutilate

From Latin mutilatus, the past participle of mutilo (“to mutilate”), itself from mutilus (“maimed”).

(zoology) Having fin-like appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean does.


skep

Late Old English sceppe, from Old Norse skeppa (“basket”). Cognate with Danish skæppe (“an old Danish unit of measure equalling 17.4 l”).

Three of the hives had been overturned and the others had been rocked to and fro. The modern hive is a fearful thing to upset; the combs are not static as in a skep, but hang loosely: when the hive is overturned they smash and pile up like a telescoped train.

He prised a skep from its stool and held it out, inverted, showing the dirty wreck of combs, with the vile grubs spinning their cocoons.

1977, Patrick O'Brian, The Mauritius Command:

She installs seven skeps at the furthest edge of the garden; on warm July days it is possible to hear the restless rumble of the bees from the house.


labellum

From Latin labellum (“small lip”), diminutive of labrum (“lip”).

(entomology) Part of the mouth of an insect, especially the sucking mouthparts of a fly.


insistent

insistent (comparative more insistent, superlative most insistent)

more insistent (comparative)
most insistent (superlative)

From Latin insistens, participle of insisto.

(ornithology) Standing on end: specifically said of the hind toe of a bird when its base is inserted so high on the shank that only its tip touches the ground: correlated with incumbent.


mousehole

From Middle English mosse hole, mowse hole; equivalent to mouse + hole.


syrinx

/sɪˈɹɪnd͡ʒiːz/

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

der

And novv vvhen the people of all ſorts came flocking to the Court, in a tumultuous manner, Agathocles [grandson of Agathocles of Syracuse], taking the King vvith him, vvent and hid himſelf, in a place called Syringes, vvhich vvas a gallery or vvalk, vvhich had every vvay three vvalls and gates to paſſe, before one could come unto it.

1658, James Ussher, “The Sixth Age of the World. [The Macedonian Empire.]”, in The Annals of the World. […], London: […] E[van] Tyler, for J[ohn] Crook, […], and for G[abriel] Bedell, […], →OCLC, page 374:

The Former of theſe Tvvo Hermes [i.e., the god Thoth], vvas the Inventor of Arts and Sciences, the Latter [Siphoas], the Reſtorer and Advancer of them: the Firſt vvrote in Hieroglyphicks upon Pillars, ἐν τῆ Συριγγικῆ γῆ [in the land of Syringes] (as the learned Valeſius conjectures it ſhould be read, instead of Σηριαδικῆ.) VVhich Syringes vvhat they vvere, Am[mianus] Marcellinus vvill inſtruct us; […]

1678, R[alph] Cudworth, chapter IV, in The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted; and Its Impossibility Demonstrated, London: […] Richard Royston, […], →OCLC, page 322:

There are alſo (in Egypt) Syrinxes, certain ſubterraneous and vvinding receſſes, vvhich (as it is ſaid) men skilled in antient rites, foreknovving the coming of the deluge, and fearing that the memory of their ceremonies ſhould be blotted out, hevved and faſhioned out of quarries in ſeveral places, vvith immenſe labour, and carved on the vvalls vvhich they had ſo hevvn, many kinds of fovvls, and vvild beaſts, and figures of animals innumerable, vvhich they called hieroglyphick (ſo ſome read the text) or ſacred characters.

1733, [Patrick Delany], “Dissertation XIV. Of Other Testimonies Relating to the Deluge.”, in Revelation Examined with Candour. Or, A Fair Enquiry into the Sense and use of the Several Revelations Expressly Declared, or Sufficiently Implied, to be Given to Mankind from the Creation, as They are Found in the Bible. […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC, pages 247–248:

Further the Ramesseion (the Osmandyeion of the Descript.) with the alley of sphinxes, the Menephtheion (palace at Kurnah) and other monuments as late as Ptolemy the First's time. Grottoes and syrinxes all around.

1850, C. O. Müller [i.e., Karl Otfried Müller], F[riedrich] G[ottlieb] Welcker, “History of Art in Antiquity. Appendix. The Nations Not of Greek Race.”, in John Leitch, transl., Ancient Art and Its Remains; or A Manual of the Archæology of Art. […], new edition, London: A[rchibald] Fullarton and Co., […], →OCLC, note 3, page 216:

(archaeology, Egyptology) Chiefly in the plural: a narrow channel cut in rock, especially in Ancient Egyptian burial chambers.

Ancient Egyptian
Ancient Egyptian#Adjective

ura

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


fauces

Borrowing from Latin faucēs (“the upper part of a throat”).

bor

(zoology) That portion of the interior of a spiral shell which can be seen by looking into the aperture.


clypeus

Cuisinart stuck a human eyelash to his clypeus with saliva, twisted it into a handlebar mustache, and greeted citizens as they arrived at the rim of the sink.

1990, Daniel Evan Weiss, The Roaches Have No King (Serpent's Tail 2001, p.16)

When viewed from the front, the part of the carapace between the anterior eyes and the front edge of the carapace is called the clypeus.

1996, Michael J. Roberts, Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe (Collins 1996, p. 14)

(entomology) The shield-shaped front part of an insect's head or a spider's cephalothorax.


plume moth

(zoology) Any one of numerous small, slender moths, belonging to the family Pterophoridae, most of which have wings deeply divided into two or more plumelike lobes, some species of which are injurious to the grapevine.


nasus

Borrowed from Latin nāsus (“the nose; the nozzle or spout”).

bor+

(entomology) A horn-like elongated rostrum on the head of soldier termites of the subfamily Nasutiterminae, capable of producing and spraying noxious secretions for defense.

(entomology) A prolongation on the front of the head of a cranefly.


plumicorn

From Latin pluma (“feather”) + cornu (“horn”).

(zoology) An ear tuft of feathers, as in the horned owls.


plumiped

From Latin plumipes, plumipedis, from pluma (“feather”) + pes.

(zoology) Having feet covered with feathers.


plumularian

(zoology) Belonging or relating to the plumularia.


plumulaceous

en-adj

plumulaceous (comparative more plumulaceous, superlative most plumulaceous)

more plumulaceous (comparative)
most plumulaceous (superlative)

(zoology, ornithology) Downy; bearing down.


pollinose

pollinose (comparative more pollinose, superlative most pollinose)

more pollinose (comparative)
most pollinose (superlative)

(zoology) Having the surface covered with a fine yellow dust, like pollen.


plumule

From Latin plūmula, diminutive of plūma (“feather”); compare French plumule.

(zoology) One of the featherlike scales of certain male butterflies.


metamorphism

en-noun

metamorphism (countable and uncountable, plural metamorphisms)

From metamorphosis + -ism, after French métamorphisme.

(zoology) The process by which insects develop through life stages, for example, those of embryo, larva, pupa and imago. The life cycle of the butterfly is one of complete metamorphosis, in which the embryo grows within the egg, hatches into the larval stage caterpillar, enters the pupal stage within its chrysalis, and finally emerges as an adult butterfly imago.


auriculated

(zoology, rare) Having an angular projection on one or both sides, as in certain bivalve shells, the foot of some gastropods, etc.


remotion

remotion (countable and uncountable, plural remotions)

From Old French or directly from Latin remōtiō.

Coordinate term: promotion

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) Backward motion.


aurited

(zoology) Having lobes like the ear; auriculate.


auricularia

From Latin auriculāria (“ear-shaped things”).

(zoology) The larvae of the sea cucumber.


auriculars

The more inland, lighter race is distinguished from A. u. uropygialis in being much paler on the back, by the edgings of the forehead scallopings and auriculars being paler, and by having the brown of the forehead less deep and less rufescent.

1937, The Emu: Official Organ of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union:

(zoology) A circle of feathers surrounding the opening of the ear of birds.


tegula

Borrowed from Latin tegula (“a tile”), from tegō (“to cover”). Doublet of tile.

(entomology) A small sclerite situated above the base of the costal vein in the wings of various insects, and attached to the anterolateral portion of the mesonotum.

tégula

sclerite in the wings of various insects

(archaeology) A flat Roman roof tile with raised edges, joined together by an imbrex.

(malacology) Any sea snail in the genus Tegula.


Cro-Magnon

Cro-Magnon (plural Cro-Magnons or Cro-Magnon)

Cro-Magnons (plural)
Cro-Magnon (plural)

From French Cro-Magnon, from Occitan Cròs-Manhon.
Named after Abri de Cro-Magnon, a rock shelter in the commune of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, Dordogne, France, where the first skeletons were found in 1868.

The Cro-Magnons may have been one important step beyond the Neanderthals in social organization.[…]That the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals encountered each other is probable. There seems to be no more than a five-thousand-year interval between the general occupation of home sites by the Neanderthals and their replacement by Cro-Magnon tools and fossils.

1994, Seymour W. Itzkoff, The Decline of Intelligence in America: A Strategy for National Renewal, Greenwood Publishing Group (Praeger Publishers), page 14:

The Cro Magnon came to live in Europe around forty thousand years ago and most educated people have heard of them. The Cro Magnon are the ones who created the remarkable cave paintings found in southern France and Spain at Lascaux and Altamira.

2006, Lyndall Baker Landauer, The Learning Pool: Basic Science Everyone Needs to Know, Xlibris, page 85:

In addition, the latest evidence suggests that the "agricultural revolution" occurred sometime during the second half of the Cro-Magnon era. Anatomically, the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon brains were approximately the same overall size.

2009, Anthony Scioli, Henry B. Biller, Hope in the Age of Anxiety, Oxford University Press, page 44:

(archaeology) The earliest known form of modern human (Homo sapiens) in Europe, dating from the late Paleolithic.

кроманьо́нец

earliest known form of modern human, in Europe


gorget

/ˈɡoɹ.d͡ʒɪt/

/ˈɡoɹ.d͡ʒɛt/

/ˈɡoɹ.d͡ʒət/

From Middle English gorget, from Old French gorgete, from gorge (“throat”).

There was […] the golden-winged woodpecker, with his crimson crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage […]

1917, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

(zoology) A crescent-shaped coloured patch on the neck of a bird or mammal.


aurochs

aurochs (plural aurochs or aurochses or aurochsen)

aurochs (plural)
aurochses (plural)
aurochsen (plural)

Borrowed from German Aurochs, an early variant of Auerochse, from Middle High German ūrochse (“aurochs”), from Old High German ūrohso (“aurochs”), a compound consisting of ūro (“aurochs”) (from Proto-Germanic *ūraz, *ūrô (“aurochs”)) + ohso (“ox”). Akin to Old English ūr (“aurochs”), Old Norse úrr (“aurochs”), Middle Low German ūrosse (“aurochs”), Old English oxa (“ox”). More at ox.

Bison bonasus
Bison bonasus#Translingual

(zoology) The European bison (Bison bonasus, or Europæus).


baccivorous

baccivorous birds

(zoology) Eating, or having a diet based on, berries


polygastrian

(zoology, obsolete) One of the Polygastrica, an obsolete classification of microorganisms.


polymeniscous

(zoology) Having numerous facets; said of the compound eyes of insects and crustaceans.


backfill

en-verb

backfill (third-person singular simple present backfills, present participle backfilling, simple past and past participle backfilled)

backfills (present singular third-person)
backfilling (participle present)
backfilled (participle past)
backfilled (past)

We backfilled the cistern with pea gravel to discourage its use as a refuse container.

(archaeology) To refill an excavation unit to restore the former ground surface and/or to preserve the unit and make it recognizable as having been excavated.


polymorphosis

(zoology) The assumption of several structural forms without a corresponding difference in function; said of sponges, etc.


polygastric

(zoology) Pertaining to the Polygastrica.


saurian

en-adj

saurian (comparative more saurian, superlative most saurian)

more saurian (comparative)
most saurian (superlative)

From Sauria (suborder of lizards) + -an (suffix forming adjectives), under influence from earlier French saurien.

compound

(zoology) Of or related to the members of the suborder Sauria.


reticulum

en-noun

reticulum (plural reticula or reticulums)

Borrowed from Latin rēticulum (“net”). Doublet of reticle.

As the young ruminant consumes forages, the reticulum, and particularly the rumen, develop rapidly.

2013 [1966], Robert E. Hungate, The Rumen and Its Microbes, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 162:

en:second compartment of stomach of ruminant

(zoology) The second compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant.


exothermic

en-adj

exothermic (comparative more exothermic, superlative most exothermic)

more exothermic (comparative)
most exothermic (superlative)

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

From French exothermique, from exo- (“outside”) + thermique (“of heat”), both ultimately from Ancient Greek. By surface analysis, exo- + -thermic.

(zoology) Of an animal: whose body temperature is regulated by external factors; cold-blooded.


pervious

pervious (comparative more pervious, superlative most pervious)

more pervious (comparative)
most pervious (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin pervius (“having a passage through; passable, penetrable, traversable”) + English -ous (suffix denoting the presence of a quality in any degree (typically an abundance)). Pervius is derived from per- (prefix denoting doing something all the way through or entirely) + via (“road, street; method, way; (figurative) course, route”) + -us (suffix forming adjectives)

bor

The noſtrils are very large, and pervious: the vvhole plumage is duſky, daſhed vvith purple and green: legs of a dirty fleſh-color: clavvs black.

1785, Thomas Pennant, “Class II. Birds. Div[ision] I. Land Birds. Order I. Rapacious. I. Vulture, Gen. Birds I.”, in Arctic Zoology, volume II, London: […] Henry Hughs, →OCLC, page 191:

(botany, zoology) Of a body structure (especially the nostril of a bird): having a hole, perforate; also, wide open.


endothermic

en-adj

endothermic (comparative more endothermic, superlative most endothermic)

more endothermic (comparative)
most endothermic (superlative)

/ˌɛndəʊˈθəːmɪk/

Borrowed from French endothermique, from endo- (“inside”) + thermique (“of heat”), both ultimately from Ancient Greek. By surface analysis, endo- + -thermic.

(zoology) Of an animal whose body temperature is regulated by internal factors.

эндатэрмічны

zoology: of animal with regulated temperature


gracile

gracile (comparative more gracile, superlative most gracile)

more gracile (comparative)
most gracile (superlative)

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

/ˈɡɹeɪˌsaɪl/

Borrowed from Middle French gracil, gracile (“slender, thin”) (modern French gracile (“gracile”)), or directly from its etymon Latin gracilis (“slender, slim, thin; lean, meagre, scanty; simple, unadorned”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kerḱ- (“to become thin; to wane”). The sense “graceful or gracefully slender” was apparently influenced by the non-cognate word grace. The English word is cognate with Italian gracile (“delicate, frail; slender, thin”), Portuguese grácil, Spanish grácil (“graceful; delicate; slender”), and a doublet of gracilis.

cog

This tentative comparison, plus consideration of individual skulls, shows the Neolithic pre-Greeks more Mediterranean than the Greeks, with emphasis on intermediate or gracile Mediterranean rather more than on the rugged Basic White trend, [...]

1945, J. Lawrence Angel, “Neolithic Ancestors of the Greeks”, in American Journal of Archaeology, volume 49, number 3, →DOI, page 256:

Where stratified fossil sequences are known, "gracile" fossils precede robust ones. The extremely robust hominids do not appear on the scene until about 2 million years ago, followed shortly thereafter by an "advanced" gracile. Both the advanced gracile and robust forms probably evolved from earlier gracile australopithecines.

1981, Nancy Makepeace Turner, “Early Hominid Lifeways: The Critical Role of an Interpretive Framework”, in On Becoming Human, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 254:

At various times since Homo first appeared in Africa, it shared the continent with more robust hominids, perhaps several different species of them. [...] They seem to have evolved from more ‘gracile’ apes (gracile being the opposite of robust). The gracile apes are also placed in the genus Australopithecus, and we too almost certainly emerged from among gracile australopithecine ranks.

2004, Richard Dawkins, “Ape-men”, in The Ancestor’s Tale: The Dawn of Life, New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, pages 86–87:

We would also expect increasing home-range size in Neanderthals in 'edge' regions (bordering the MLB and the plains), such as south-west France, in response to habitat fragmentation during periods of expansion of open vegetation. A more gracile morphology would have been far more efficient over larger areas.

2004, Clive Finlayson, “Comparative Behaviour and Ecology of Neanderthals and Modern Humans”, in Neanderthals and Modern Humans: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 117:

(chiefly zoology, anthropology, paleontology) Of an animal or skeletal element: having a slender frame.


caveman

From cave + man, based on the supposition that early humans dwelt in caves.

The political cartoon showed the politician as a caveman, clubbing the budget depicted as a mammoth.

CAVEMAN DIET
The creators of this nutrition plan believe that cavemen and cavewomen were lean and healthy because of the all-natural foods they ate.

2006, Harley Pasternak, The 5 Factor Diet, page 15:

And who could forget those ads that featured sophisticated cavemen who were insulted—in a parody on political correctness—by “insensitive” offenders who implied that some action was “so easy, a caveman could do it.”

2010, Terence A. Shimp, Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, 8th edition, Cengage Learning, page 154:

For, in essence, the caveman concept implies the abhorrent—undignified human bestiality and a disquieting association with apelike ancestors. Cavemen have represented Darwin′s repugnant evolutionary ideals and even suggest civilisation′s tenuousness.

2010, Allen A. Debus, Prehistoric Monsters: The Real and Imagined Creatures of the Past That We Love to Fear, page 87:

An early human or closely related species, popularly held to reside in caves.


tornus

(entomology) The bottom corner of a wing.


coelacanthine

en-adj

coelacanthine (comparative more coelacanthine, superlative most coelacanthine)

more coelacanthine (comparative)
most coelacanthine (superlative)

(ichthyology) Pertaining to, or having the properties of, a coelacanth (fish).


rostrum

Learned borrowing from Latin rōstrum (“beak, snout”), from rōd(ō) (“gnaw”) + -trum, from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁d- + *-trom. The pulpit sense is a back-formation from the name of the Roman Rōstra, the platforms in the Forum where politicians made speeches. The Rōstra were decorated with (and named for) the beaks (prows) of ships from naval victories.

lbor

(zoology) The beak-shaped projection on the head of insects such as weevils.

rostrum

beak-shaped projection on the head of some insects


pecten

(zoology) One of the genus Pecten of scallops.


cuneus

Borrowed from Latin cuneus. Doublet of coign and coin.

(entomology) A wedge-shaped section of the forewing of certain heteropteran bugs.


fettered

en-adj

fettered (comparative more fettered, superlative most fettered)

more fettered (comparative)
most fettered (superlative)

(zoology) Of the feet: bent backward and apparently unfit for walking.


cryptozoology

The Loch Ness Monster is one of the mysteries of cryptozoology.

This peculiar situation amplifies the reluctance of conservative scientists to objectively consider the search for hidden animals, the field of cryptozoology. […] Indeed, cryptozoology has gained increasing legitimacy in recent years.

2007, Jeff Meldrum, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 45:

Study of cryptids, animals whose existence has not been proven.

cryptozoology

สัตว์ลึกลับวิทยา


pullus

(ornithology) A chick; a young bird in the downy stage.


solen

(zoology) Any marine bivalve mollusk belonging to Solen; a razor clam.


amniotic fluid

en-noun

amniotic fluid (countable and uncountable, plural amniotic fluids)

(zoology) In placental mammals, a fluid contained within the amnion membrane that surrounds a developing embryo or fetus.

سُخْد

fluid that surrounds a developing embryo or fetus


lynchet

Apparently lynch (“variant of linch”) + -et, the first element derived from Old English hlinc (“a hill”).

A stretch of a hundred odd acres, in one patch, on the highest ground of the farm, rising above stony lanchets or lynchets - the outcrop of siliceous veins in the chalk formation.

1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter 43, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Penguin Classics, published 2003, →ISBN:

(archaeology) A bank of earth that slowly builds up on the lower slope of a ploughed field; a feature of ancient field systems.


helium dating

(archaeology) a method of determining the age of rock that depends on the production of helium during the decay of various radioactive isotopes of uranium and thorium.


avunculate

(anthropology) The relationship between a man and his sister's children, generally her sons.

(anthropology) Among certain tribal peoples, for example, the Korowai, a special relationship between a man and a maternal uncle, and the mutual responsibilities between them.


allo-

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

From Ancient Greek ἄλλος (állos, “other”), from Proto-Hellenic *áľľos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos (English else).

allosuck is to suckle from a female who is not one's own mother, allocare is care given to an infant by an animal that is not the infant's parent, allofather is a male alloparent

(ethology) Alloparenting: parenting behaviours between animals who are not parent and child.


berdache

From French bardache, from Italian bardassa, perhaps from Arabic بَرْدَج (bardaj, “slave”). Doublet of bardash.

These culturally bound assumptions have bedevilled the entire anthropological literature on the berdache in Native American cultures, and it is because of this that I have followed the lead of Angelino and Shedd when referring to the phenomenon of the berdache-transgenderal, for as Fitzgerald (1977) points out: "A berdache . . . may be a transvestite, but a transvestite need not be a berdache; and neither need be homosexual."

1980, Kenneth E. Read, “Observations on the Current State of Anthropological Research on Homosexual Behavior”, in Other Voices: The Style of a Male Homosexual Tavern, Novato, Cali.: Chandler & Sharp Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 187:

Gender is the sociocultural designation of biobehavioral and psychosocial qualities of the sexes; for example, woman (female), man (male), other(s) (e.g., berdaches²). Notions of gender are culturally specific and depend on the ways in which cultures define and differentiate human (and other) potentials and possibilities. While many people in Western society may think first of heterosexual women and men when the word "gender" is mentioned, there are more gender possibilities than just those two.

1989, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Christine Roberts, “Sex, Sexuality, Gender, and Gender Variance”, in Sandra Morgen, editor, Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching, Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 439:

Male berdache have been documented in nearly 150 North American societies, while female berdache (females who take on the lifeways of males) appear in half as many groups.

2005, Michael J Horswell, Decolonizing the Sodomite, University of Texas, published 2006, page 20:

(anthropology, dated, now offensive, ethnic slur) Among Native Americans, a person who identifies with any of a variety of gender identities which are not exclusively those of their biological sex; a transgender person.

wíŋkte

Native American who identifies with a gender identity not exclusively corresponding to their biological sex — see also two-spirit


cuticula

From Latin cutīcula (“skin, cuticle”). Doublet of cuticle.

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


faeder

Learned borrowing from Old English fæder (“father”). Doublet of ayr, father, padre, pater, and père.

doublet

Here, we describe a rare female-like morph of ruffs: the ‘missing’ third alternative mating strategy, which we have called ‘faeder’. Faeders are slightly larger than females and in late April have testes 2.5 time the size of testes of normal males.

2006 June 22, Joop Jukema, “Permanent female mimics in a lekking shorebird”, in Biology Letters:

Faeders, male ruffs that mimic females in plumage and "sneak" copulations at leks, secrete monoesters like other males.

2007, Jeroen Willem Hendrik Reneerkens, Functional aspects of seasonal variation in preen wax composition of sandpipers (Scolopacidae), page 49:

It has recently been discovered that a third mating strategy exists for males - the 'faeder' or 'sneaker', which number only about 1% of the Ruff population.

2009, Richard J. Chandler, Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Photographic Guide:

These “faeder” males, as they are called, were found to have testes 2.5 times larger than those of normal males during the peak breeding time of late April and are delightfully termed “sneakers.”

2016, Clifford B. Frith, Charles Darwin's Life With Birds: His Complete Ornithology:

Philomachus pugnax
Philomachus pugnax#Translingual

(ornithology) A male ruff (bird, Philomachus pugnax, syn. Calidris pugnax) that permanently mimics a female so as to gain access to mating territories and "steal" matings.


cardo

Borrowed from Latin cardō (“hinge”). Doublet of kern.

(zoology) The basal joint of the maxilla in insects


gord

From Proto-Slavic *gordъ. Doublet of yard and garth.

(archaeology) A medieval Slavonic fortified settlement, typically a group of wooden houses surrounded by a wall of earth and wood, with a palisade running along the top of the bulwark.


flexure

en-noun

flexure (countable and uncountable, plural flexures)

(zoology) The last joint, or bend, of the wing of a bird.


trench cut

(archaeology) A triangle-shaped cut in a tell, used to see how many levels there are or to find information about each separate settlement.


planula

(zoology) The larva of a hydrozoan, which is free-swimming and covered in cilia.


kenning

From ken (“to beget, bring forth”), from Middle English kennen (“to beget, conceive (offspring); to give birth to”), from Old English cennan, gecennan (“to beget (offspring); to give birth to; to bring forth, produce”); see further at etymology 1.

inh

The ſtreine or kenning of the egge.

1585, “Oui vmbilicus”, in Iohn Higins, transl., The Nomenclator, or Remembrancer of Adrianus Iunius, London: Ralph Newberie and Henrie Denham, page 54:

(zoology, obsolete, rare) A chalaza or tread of an egg (a spiral band attaching the yolk of the egg to the eggshell); a cicatricula.


Abbevillian

Name derived from Abbeville, France (location of the archaeological sites).

(archaeology, dated) Of or relating to any of various early Paleolithic sites, particularly in Europe, that are characterized by the presence of bifacial stone axes.


Abbevillian

(archaeology, dated) The earliest epoch of the early Paleolithic stage or tradition characterized by the presence of bifacial stone axes, especially in Europe.


cirrus

(zoology) A thin tendril-like appendage.


ventral fin

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


finlet

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


caudal peduncle

en-noun

caudal peduncle (plural caudal peduncles)

(ichthyology) The narrow part of a fish's body to which the caudal or tail fin is attached. Its proportions, such as the length and breadth, and attached organs, such as spines of surgeonfishes or caudal keels and finlets of Scombridae often are important in descriptions of fish species.


cephalic fin

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


caudal keel

(ichthyology) A lateral ridge found just anterior to each side of the tail fin on the caudal peduncle of some types of fast-swimming fish. The keels improve the stability of the fish's attitude at speed in the water, and strengthen the support of the caudal fin.


adipose fin

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

rasvaevä

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


frill

A large admiral lizard leapt up on a rail, stood on hind legs with fore legs raised like hands and watched for a moment […], then loped down the cess-path with arms swinging and iridescent frill flying out like a cape […]

1943, Xavier Herbert, chapter 14, in Capricornia, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton-Century, page 227:

She reminded Bojan of a desert lizard throwing up its frill to frighten predators.

1997, Richard Flanagan, chapter 54, in The Sound of One Hand Clapping, New York: Grove Press:

(zoology) The relatively extensive margin seen on the back of the heads of reptiles, with either a bony support or a cartilaginous one.


mouthbrooder

However, [Franz] Steindachner (1875), in describing Arius planiceps, a catfish from Panama, found that at the breeding season the innermost edges of the ventral fins of the female are developed so as to form a kind of pocket. He conjectured that the eggs are extruded into this, fertilized by the male, and then taken into his mouth. He found a similar structure on the female of A. kessleri, the male of which is also a mouth brooder.

1918, E. W. Gudger, “Oral Gestation in the Gaff-Topsail Catfish, Felichthys felis”, in Papers from the Department of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, volume XII, number III, Washington, D.C.: Published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, →OCLC, page 33:

Mozambique mouthbrooders are native to coastal streams of southeast Africa, especially the Zambesi River, Mozambique.

1976, Peter B. Moyle, “Cichlid Family, Cichlidae”, in Inland Fishes of California, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 330:

In almost all mouthbrooders, guarding the young is undertaken by the female (uniparental maternal family) though the male may participate exceptionally, notably in S. mossambicus [...] In S. galilaeus [...] and S. multifasciatus [...] the two sexes form a stable couple and both practice mouthbrooding. This seems, therefore, to be an intermediate stage between the biparental family of substrate-spawners and the uniparental family of mouthbrooders [...].

1982, J-Cl. Philippart, J-Cl. Ruwet, “Ecology and Distribution of Tilapias”, in R[oger] S. V. Pullin, R[osemary] H[elen] Lowe-McConnell, editors, The Biology and Culture of Tilapias: Proceedings of the International Conference on the Biology and Culture of Tilapias, 2–5 September 1980 […], Makati, Philippines: International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management, →ISBN, →ISSN, session 1 (Biology), page 48:

The very small Tanganicodus irsacae is a typical biparental mouthbrooder that collects eggs immediately upon deposition and retains them in the buccal cavity for about 14 days at which time fully formed young 11mm long are released and begin oral feeding.

1991, E[ugene] K[ornel] Balon, “Probable Evolution of the Coelacanths Reproductive Style: Lecithotrophy and Orally Feeding Embryos in Cichlid Fishes and in Latimeria chalumnae”, in John A. Musick, Michael N. Bruton, Eugene K. Balon, editors, The Biology of Latimeria chalumnae and Evolution of Coelacanths: […] (Developments in Environmental Biology of Fishes; 12), Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 252–253:

[A]lmost all mouthbrooding species are found in Africa, and many are restricted to one of the African Great Lakes. Among the few exceptions are Sarotherodon melanotheron, a paternal mouthbrooder which is widely distributed in West African rivers and estuaries, and S. galilaeus, a biparental mouthbrooder with an even broader distribution across North-central Africa [...].

1991, M[iles] H. A. Keenleyside, “Parental Care”, in Miles H. A. Keenleyside, editor, Cichlid Fishes: Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution (Fish and Fisheries Series; 2), London, New York, N.Y.: Chapman & Hall, →ISBN, page 205:

The cardinalfishes are interesting in their reproductive biology. They are mouthbrooders, in that the eggs are held, usually in the mouth of the male, until hatching; this is one of the only marine fish families to reproduce in this way.

2000, Yvonne Sadovy, Andrew S. Cornish, “Cardinalfishes: Apogonidae”, in Reef Fishes of Hong Kong, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, →ISBN, page 93:

(zoology) Any animal that cares for its offspring, either eggs or juveniles, by holding them in its mouth for extended periods of time.

muilbroeder

animal that cares of its offspring by holding them in its mouth


excavate

(zoology) Any member of a major grouping of unicellular eukaryotes, of the clade Excavata.


meline

From Latin melinus (“relating to honey”).


pharate

en-adj

pharate (comparative more pharate, superlative most pharate)

more pharate (comparative)
most pharate (superlative)

From Ancient Greek φᾶρος (phâros, “mantle, cloth, web”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), suggesting the process of being about to shed the old skin.

af

1968 Hinton, H. E. Spiracular Gills, Advances in Insect Physiology Vol. 5 Academic Press
Each new instar or stage of an arthropod begins enclosed within the cuticle of the previous instar or stage. That part of it that is spent enveloped by the cuticle of the previous instar or stage is known as the pharate phase or stage, or simply as the pharate larva, pupa, or adult, as the case may be.

Many Trichoptera swim to the surface as pharate adults, the middle legs of the pupae of these species being fringed to facilitate swimming, and the insect may continue to swim at the surface until it finds a suitable object to crawl out on.

2013, R. F. Chapman, The Insects: Structure and Function, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 435:

(of an adult insect) In the final stages of conversion from pupa to adult, e.g. waiting to emerge from a cocoon, or escaping from an aquatic pupal stage to terrestrial adulthood.


cere

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

The cere is the fleshy spot just above the beak where the nostrils, or nares, are located. In some species, like the parakeet, the cere is prominent; in others, the cere is covered by feathers. Both the cere and the nares should be clean[…]

2021, Nikki Moustaki, Parrots For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 182:

(ornithology) A fleshy, waxy area at the base of the upper beak in certain birds.


bifacial core

(archaeology) The roughly biconical remains of a piece of worked flint(1) from which all possible blades have been struck.


phoresy

From French phorésie, from Ancient Greek φόρησις (phórēsis, “wearing, garment”), from φορέω (phoréō, “I wear, I bear”) + -σις (-sis, nominal suffix).

af

(zoology) An association between two organisms in which one (e.g. a mite) travels on the body of another, without being a parasite.


Bessie

(cryptozoology) Bessie, a lake monster supposed to exist in Lake Erie in the United States.


polygynandry

If you've never heard of polygynandry before, this isn't surprising because it is a very unusual mating system, found only in a tiny number of vertebrate species and in no other primates.

2016, David P. Barash, Out of Eden, Oxford, page 29:

(anthropology, zoology) A mating pattern involving multiple males and multiple females.


fluorine dating

(archaeology) A technique used to date bones by measuring the amount of fluorine absorbed from the surrounding soil.


fluorine absorption dating

en-noun

fluorine absorption dating (uncountable)

(archaeology) a technique used to date bones by measuring the amount of fluorine absorbed from the surrounding soil


protandry

(ethology) The arrival of males before females at a mating site.


protogyny

(ethology) The arrival of females before males at a mating site.


archaeozoology

(archaeology) The study of relationships between humans and animals over time.

arqueozoologia

the study of relationships between humans and animals over time


doodlebug

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

(entomology) An antlion larva (Myrmeleontidae).

(entomology, UK) A cockchafer (genus Melolontha).

Common names for woodlice vary throughout the English-speaking world. They include roly-poly, pill bug (usually applied only to the genus Armadillidium), sow bug, doodle bug, carpenter (Newfoundland),[…] cheesybug (Kent), and cheeselog.

2018 June 25, “Pillbugs”, in Niles Biological, Inc.:


Frenchification

Frenchification (countable and uncountable, plural Frenchifications)

From Frenchify + -ation, from French + -ify.

Synonym of Gallicization, translation into French or a French translation.

فَرْنَسَة

act or action of Frenchifying, something Frenchified


hot-blooded

en-adj

hot-blooded (comparative more hot-blooded or hotter-blooded, superlative most hot-blooded or hottest-blooded)

more hot-blooded (comparative)
hotter-blooded (comparative)
most hot-blooded (superlative)
hottest-blooded (superlative)

For my own part, judging from experiments ranging from the cold-blooded to the hottest-blooded animals—from the alligator to the common fowl—I am constrained to say, that after decapitation, the sensational phenomena and voluntary motion are far more strongly indicated in the headless body, than in the separated head.

1851 June, Bennet Dowler, Experimental Researches, Illustrative of the Functional Oneness, Unity, and Diffusion, of Nervous Action; in Opposition to the Anatomical Assumption, of Four Sets of Nerves, and a Fourfold Set of Functions, and Transmitted Impressions; […], New Orleans, La.: […] Joseph Cohn, […], pages 16–17:

By taking little or no exercise, in passing most of the time in sleep, and residing in a tropical climate, or in a temperate one during the hottest summer months, while the experiment lasts, it will be found that the system needs but little food, the waste of the tissues being reduced to a minimum, and there being but little need for the heat produced on account of the high temperature of the surroundings. By living in this way, man can transform himself almost into a cold-blooded or hot-blooded hibernating animal.

1887, Henry C[adwalader] Chapman, “Food”, in Treatise on Human Physiology. For the Use of Students and Practitioners of Medicine., Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea Brothers & Co., page 85:

Most hot-blooded animals cannot sweat as we do to get rid of excess body heat, so big “radiator” ears are a common desert adaptation.

1992, Diana Kappel-Smith, Desert Time: A Journey Through the American Southwest, Tucson, Ariz.: The University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 109:


ching

en-noun

ching (countable and uncountable, plural chings)

(zoology) A high-pitched mating call made by the male kakapo.


ching

en-verb

ching (third-person singular simple present chings, present participle chinging, simple past and past participle chinged)

chings (present singular third-person)
chinging (participle present)
chinged (participle past)
chinged (past)

(zoology, intransitive) Of the male kakapo: to make its high-pitched mating call.


whorl

(zoology) A volution, or turn, of the spire of a univalve shell.


decussate

en-adj

decussate (comparative more decussate, superlative most decussate)

more decussate (comparative)
most decussate (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin decussātus from decussāre (“to divide crosswise, arrange crosswise or mark with a cross”), from decussis (“a 10 asses coin”), from decem (“ten”) + as (“a Roman coin”). Based on the cross marking on the decussis coin.

(zoology) Having anatomical structures or markings crossing each other, typically in an X shape or at right angles.


mother-in-law style

(linguistics, anthropology) The style of speech and manners which are to be observed between an Australian aboriginal man and his mother-in-law (i.e. wife's mother). Depending on the particular people, this can go so as far as an entirely separate vocabulary of words.


paedophage

(zoology) An organism that eats or consumes the young of other species.


acoel

From group name Acoela, from Ancient Greek ἄκοιλος (ákoilos, “not hollow”).

der

Acoels have no brain or ganglia but a network of nerves beneath the skin that is slightly more concentrated towards the front end.

2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 89:

(zoology) A member of the Acoela group of marine flatworms, which lack a digestive cavity with definite walls.


catch and release

(archaeology) The practice of replacing artifacts in their original location after examining and cataloguing them.


cryptozoologist

From crypto- + zoologist or cryptozoology + -ist.

(cryptozoology) One who studies cryptozoology.


ramus

(ornithology) The stem of a barb of a feather, from which the barbules extend.


murine

From Latin stem, mur-, of mus (“mouse”) + -ine.


volute

From French volute, from Italian voluta, from Latin volūta, from the feminine of volūtus, perfect passive participle of volvō. Doublet of vault.

(zoology) The spirals or whorls on a gastropod's shell.

Common shells include frog-shells, distorsios, volutes, tulips, murex, cones, olives, marginellas, cowries, augers and the Florida horse conch, the state's official shell, which can grow up to 24in (6 1 cm) long.

2002, Don Philpott, Florida: Gulf Coast, page 16:

(zoology) Any marine gastropod of the family Volutidae.


cribbing

en-noun

cribbing (countable and uncountable, plural cribbings)

The cribbing used to support anything from below or on a side, as with a retaining wall, or to prop up a piece of heavy machinery.

obsessive-compulsive disorder
obsessive-compulsive disorder

(ethology, equestrianism) A self-injurious tendency of certain horses to swallow air while slobbering and biting onto objects in and about their enclosure; cribbing and windsucking are regarded as equine forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.


loculus

(zoology) One of the spaces between the septa in the Anthozoa.


silverback

(mammalogy) A mature male gorilla, so named from the silver streaking on its back.


anthill

From Middle English ametehul, amptehille, from Old English ǣmethyll, equivalent to ant + hill.

Coordinate term: anthole

On arrival at Edinburgh Waverley, I fight my way through the throngs of tourists and locals turning the place into a human anthill.

2024 November 27, Paul Bigland, “Around the UK on nearly 80 trains...”, in RAIL, number 1023, page 48:

A cone-shaped structure built from sediment and other available materials by ants or white ants (termites), and beneath which the colony nests.


metazoa

(zoology) The multicellular eukaryotes of the kingdom Metazoa considered collectively.


receptive

en-adj

receptive (comparative more receptive, superlative most receptive)

more receptive (comparative)
most receptive (superlative)

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From Late Middle English receptive, receptyue (“capable of receiving something; acting as a receptacle”), borrowed from Medieval Latin receptivus (“capable of receiving something”), from Latin receptus (“retaken, having been retaken; received, having been received”) + -īvus (suffix added to the perfect passive participial stems of verbs, forming a deverbal adjective meaning ‘doing; related to doing’). Receptus is the perfect passive participle of recipiō (“to regain possession, take back; to recapture; to receive; to accept, undertake”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards; again’) + capiō (“to capture, catch, take; to take hold, take possession; to take on; to contain, hold; to occupy; to possess; to receive, take in; to comprehend, understand; to captivate, charm”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-, *keh₂p- (“to hold; to seize”)).

der

(zoology) Of a female animal (especially a mammal): prepared to mate; in heat, in oestrus.

разгонена

of a female animal: prepared to mate — see also in heat


mushroom body

From mushroom + body, after German pilzhutförmiger Körper.

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

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

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


pennaceous

en-adj

pennaceous (comparative more pennaceous, superlative most pennaceous)

more pennaceous (comparative)
most pennaceous (superlative)

(ornithology) having the structure of a normal feather


pseudogamy

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assemblage

en-noun

assemblage (countable and uncountable, plural assemblages)

Borrowed from French assemblage. By surface analysis, assemble + -age.

(archaeology) A group of different artifacts found in association with one another.


reduviid

Borrowed from translingual Reduviidae, from Reduvius (genus name) + -idae (taxonomic suffix), from Latin reduvia (“a remainder, remnant, fragment”), describing the habit of the nymph of Reduvius personatus camouflaging itself with small pieces of debris.

der

(entomology) of, relating to, or characteristic of the family Reduviidae


reduviid

(entomology) any member of the Reduviidae family of insects, which comprises predatory and blood-sucking bugs, including the vectors of Chagas disease


trematode

From translingual Trematoda, from Ancient Greek τρημᾰτώδης (trēmatṓdēs, “having a vent to the intestinal canal”), from τρῆμᾰ (trêma, “perforation, aperture”) + -ώδης (-ṓdēs, “full of, -like”).

af

He passed under the last of the bridges and around the bend in the river, through peaceful farmland, high fields tilted on the slopes and rich turned earth in patches of black corrugation among the greening purlieus and small cultivated orchards like scenes of plenitude from picturebooks suddenly pasted over the waste he was a familiar of, the river like a giant trematode curling down out of the city, welling heavy and septic past these fine homes on the north shore.

1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 119:

(zoology) a parasitic flatworm of the class Trematoda


virginal

en-adj

virginal (comparative more virginal, superlative most virginal)

more virginal (comparative)
most virginal (superlative)

/ˈvɜː(ɹ)d͡ʒɪnəl/

From Middle English virginal, from Middle French virginal, from Latin virginālis. The musical instrument is probably so called from being played by young girls.


cornuate

cornuate (comparative more cornuate, superlative most cornuate)

more cornuate (comparative)
most cornuate (superlative)

From Latin cornuātus (“horn-shaped”), from cornū (“horn”) + -ātus.

[…] that in the higher apes, Troglodytes, Pithecus, the posterior cavity of the tricornate ventricle becomes of larger dimensions than in Cercopithecus, although far inferior in size and diverse in shape, from the much deeper, and more incurved cornuate bay which forms the digital cavity of man.

1863, Thomas Henry Huxley, “Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature”, in The Edinburgh Review: Or Critical Journal, volume 117, page 557:

Five species of cornuate osteostracans have been discovered at Devils Hole, and a further three or four species are probably represented by indeterminate fragmentary material.

1999, David L. Dineley, Fossil fishes of Great Britain, page 121:

Surgical treatment consisted of excision of the accessory tarsal navicular or medial protuberance of a prominent cornuate-shaped navicular combined with simple replication of the tibialis posterior tendon without altering its course.

1990 July 20, Bennett GL, Weiner DS, Leighley B., “Surgical treatment of symptomatic accessory tarsal navicular”, in Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics, volume 10, number 4, pages 445–9:

(medicine, zoology) Horn-shaped, as with a bicornuate uterus.


snowshoe hare

Lepus americanus
Lepus americanus#Translingual

(zoology) A North American hare (Lepus americanus) that has large, furry feet; its fur is white in winter and brown in summer.


chicken coop

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Coordinate term: chicken tractor

A building, often wooden with wire netting, in which a small number of poultry are kept.

There's armored cars, and tanks, and Jeeps
And rigs of every size.
Yeah, them chicken coops was full o'bears
And choppers filled the skies.

1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:


scaled

(zoology) Covered with scales or scale-like structures.


indented

indented (comparative more indented, superlative most indented)

more indented (comparative)
most indented (superlative)

(zoology) Notched along the margin with a different colour, like the feathers of some birds.


hatching

en-noun

hatching (countable and uncountable, plural hatchings)

We got a good hatching from the swallowtail eggs.

(zoology) A group of birds, reptiles, fish, insects, etc., which emerge from their eggs at the same time.

люпило

group which emerge from eggs at the same time

(zoology) The act of an egg hatching, eclosion.


beardless

en-adj

beardless (comparative more beardless, superlative most beardless)

more beardless (comparative)
most beardless (superlative)

From Middle English bērdlēs, from Old English beardlēas (“beardless”), from Proto-West Germanic *bardalaus (“beardless”), equivalent to beard + -less. Cognate with Scots berdles (“beardless”), Saterland Frisian boartloos (“beardless”), West Frisian burdleas (“beardless”), Dutch baardeloos (“beardless”), German Low German baartlos (“beardless”), German bartlos (“beardless”).

cog

(ornithology) Lacking a beard (a defined patch of feathers below the beak).


palmated

From Latin palmātus (“embroidered with palms”).

der

(ornithology, zoology) Having digits connected by a thin membrane; webbed.

räpylä-

having digits connected by thin membrane

(zoology) Having broad, flattened parts with short extensions similar to a webbed appendage.


patriclan

Patrilect is a marker of patriclan membership and thus a symbol of identity.

1991, Philip Baldi, Patterns of Change - Change of Patterns, →ISBN:

(anthropology) A clan, with membership determined by patrilineal descent from a common ancestor.


chiefdom

(anthropology) A society larger than a tribe, but smaller or simpler than a state.


lachrymatory

/ˈlækɹɪmətəɹi/

From Latin type *lacrimatorius, from lacrimare.

1658: For beside these Lachrymatories, notable Lamps with Vessels of Oyles and Aromaticall Liquors attended noble Ossuaries. — Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial (Penguin 2005, p. 21)

(archaeology) A vase supposedly intended to hold tears; formerly used by archaeologists to designate certain urns found in Roman burials.


ferine

en-adj

ferine (comparative more ferine, superlative most ferine)

more ferine (comparative)
most ferine (superlative)

From Latin ferīnus, from fera (“wild animal”). The zoological sense was coined by William Whewell in 1840.

(zoology, obsolete) Belonging to the proposed taxon of bats, carnivorans, and insectivorans.


ferine

(zoology, obsolete) A member of the proposed taxon of bats, carnivorans, and insectivorans.


cloudless sulfur

en-noun

cloudless sulfur (plural cloudless sulfurs)

(entomology) A yellow pierid butterfly, Phoebis sennae, found in the Americas.


recurrent

From Latin recurrens, present participle of recurrere. Morphologically recur + -ent.

(entomology) Turned back toward the base.


acarid

Circa 19th century; from New Latin Acaridae (“biological family”), from Acarus (“genus”), from acarus (“mite”), from Ancient Greek ἄκαρι (ákari, “mite”). By surface analysis, acar- + -id

(zoology) Any parasitic arachnid, such as mites and ticks, of the subclass Acarina.

acarídeo

any parasitic arachnid of the subclass Acarina


nodus

Borrowed from Latin nōdus (“a knot”). Doublet of knot, knout, and node.

(zoology) In the Odonata, a prominent crossvein near the centre of the leading edge of a wing.


clipper

Dutch: (nautical) klipper, klipperaak m or f

From Middle Dutch klepper and Middle English clippen, from Old English clyppan, from Proto-Germanic *klupjaną.

(entomology) An Asian butterfly of species Parthenos sylvia, family Nymphalidae.


stratigraphy

stratigraphy (countable and uncountable, plural stratigraphies)

(archaeology) The layering of deposits, with newer remains overlaying older ones, forming a chronology of the site.


chupacabra

/ˌt͡ʃʰupəˈkʰabɹə/

Variant spelling of chupacabras used in English cryptozoological publications by misanalysis of the Spanish chupacabras as a plural.

(cryptozoology) Alternative spelling of chupacabras


sinistral

dextral

antonym(s) of “of, facing, or on the left side”

(zoology, of certain spiral shells) Having the whorls of the spire revolving or rising to the left; reversed.


specific name

Holonyms: species name (the binomial unit), binominal name, binomial name

(zoology) The second word in the scientific name of an animal species, following the name of the genus.


subspecific name

subspecific name (plural subspecific names)

(zoology) The third word in the scientific name of an animal subspecies, following the name of the species.


ectogenous

(zoology, of a pathogenic organism) Able to survive outside of its host


ectothermic

(zoology) Of or relating to an ectotherm; having a body temperature that varies depending on the outside temperature.

بَارِد الدَّم

of or relating to ectotherm; having an unregulated body temperature — see also endothermic


spiculum

From Latin spīculum (“a little sharp point”), from spīcum, alternative form of spīca (“point, spike”).

(zoology) A sharp, needle-like structure, especially those making up the skeleton of a sponge.


molehill

A small mound of earth created by a mole's burrowing underneath the surface of the ground.


infrasubspecific

Holonyms: infraspecific, subspecific, < specific, < generic, < familial

(zoology, bacteriology) pertaining to a taxon at a rank lower than subspecies. The names of such taxa are not regulated by a nomenclatural code; they are not available names.


aigrette

Borrowed from French aigrette (“egret”). Doublet of egret.

Birds of many kinds skimmed the weedy flats. George pointed out a flock of aigrets, the beautiful wild fowl with the priceless plumes.

1912, Zane Grey, chapter 3, in Ken Ward in the Jungle, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 31:


maypole

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The male Golden Bowerbird is a beautiful bird that builds one of the greatest structures in the natural world, a maypole up to three metres tall constructed of sticks and festooned with decorative clusters of flowers and lichens.

2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 212:

(ornithology) A maypole-like structure of sticks placed about a sapling in the bowers of certain species of bowerbird.


stot

Likely derived from Middle Dutch stoten (“to push”) or Middle Low German stôten, from Old Saxon stōtan, from Proto-West Germanic *stautan, from Proto-Germanic *stautaną (“to push, jolt, bump”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-, from *(s)tew- (“to push, hit”).
Also compare Middle English steten (“to thrust, strike, push, knock down”), Old Norse stauta and steyta (whence Danish støde), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (stautan), Old Saxon stotan.

cog

(zoology, of quadrupeds) A leap using all four legs at once.


stot

en-verb

stot (third-person singular simple present stots, present participle stotting or stottin, simple past and past participle stotted)

stots (present singular third-person)
stotting (participle present)
stottin (participle present)
stotted (participle past)
stotted (past)

This vigorous and conspicuous leaping in front of a predator is analogous to bird alarm calls, in that it seems to warn companions of danger while apparently calling the predator’s attention to the stotter himself. We have a responsibility to explain stotting Tommies and all similar phenomena, and this is something I am going to face in later chapters.

1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 14:

(intransitive, zoology, of quadrupeds) To leap using all four legs at once.


venation

en-noun

venation (countable and uncountable, plural venations)

For instance, native plants in the Mascarenes developed several adaptations, such as serrated leafs^([sic]) and leafs^([sic]) with red venation, to deter tortoise browsing (Cheke & Hume, 2010).

2017 March 1, Hanneke Meijer, The Guardian:

(botany, entomology) The arrangement of veins in a leaf, wing, or similar structure.

venació

state of having veins, or pattern of veins


noyau

noyau (countable and uncountable, plural noyaus or noyaux)

His coffee was excellent, and then came a case of liqueurs, noyau both white and red, etc.

1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 178

A French liqueur made at Poissy in north central France from brandy and flavoured with almonds and the pits of apricots.

Borders are violated by hungering males and famished females, and the ordered animosities of the noyau give way to a saturnalia of sexual adventure.

1966 August 26, Richard Ardrey, “Strongest Bond of All - The Space We Own”, in LIFE, page 58:

The orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) also exhibits the noyau system and appears to be the only diurnal primate with a largely solitary lifestyle.

1999, Ronald M. Nowak, Walker's Primates of the World, JHU Press, →ISBN, page 27:

This "noyau" pattern is found among various nocturnal strepsirrhines.

2000, Sergio M. Pellis, Andrew N. Iwaniuk, “Adult-Adult Play in Primates: Comparative Analyses of Its Origin, Distribution and Evolution”, in Ethology, 106, page 1089:

(ethology, countable) A small nucleus or core group of people or animals.


panzootic

(biology, medicine, of a disease) Affecting nonhuman animals of many species and throughout a wide area.


lordosis

lordosis (countable and uncountable, plural lordoses)

From Ancient Greek λορδός (lordós, “bent backward”) + -osis.

suffix

(zoology) A body posture of some female mammals, indicating receptivity to copulation. It involves lowering of the forelimbs but with the rear limbs extended and hips raised, ventral arching of the spine and a raising, or sideward displacement, of the tail.


epiphysis

(zoology) A small upper piece of each half of an alveolus of a sea urchin.


barrette

Borrowed from French barrette, from barre (“bar”) + -ette, literally “small bar”.


flabellate

en-adj

flabellate (comparative more flabellate, superlative most flabellate)

more flabellate (comparative)
most flabellate (superlative)

From Latin flābellum + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

af

(botany, zoology) Fan-shaped; having parts or segments that are flattened and lengthened on one side, such that they are long and narrow.


pectinate

Borrowed from Latin pectinātus (“combed”), from pectinō (“I comb”), from pecten (“comb”). First attested in the mid-18th century.

bor+

The moth's antennae were pectinate in shape, set with long teeth along one edge only.

(anatomy, zoology, botany) Having narrow ridges or projections aligned close together like the teeth of a comb.


tardigrade

/ˈtɑɹdɪˌɡɹeɪd/

(zoology) A member of the animal phylum Tardigrada.


water bear

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Calque of German Wasserbär, used to describe these animals by Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773. Equivalent to water + bear.


inocular

(zoology) Inserted in the corner of the eye, like the antenna of certain insects.


blooded

From Middle English bloded, equivalent to blood + -ed.

(zoology, of horses, cattle, etc.) derived from ancestors of good blood; having a good pedigree.


cryptozoological

/ˌkɹɪptoʊˌzoʊəˈlɒd͡ʒɪkəl/

From crypto- + zoological or cryptozoology + -ical.

(cryptozoology) Of or pertaining to cryptozoology.


altricial

en-adj

altricial (comparative more altricial, superlative most altricial)

more altricial (comparative)
most altricial (superlative)

From New Latin Altrices (a former division of birds), plural of altrīx, the feminine of altor (“nourisher”), from alere (“to nourish”).

Altricial young are typical among carnivores, which might be expected to be hampered in their hunting behaviour if the pregnant mother has to carry its young for a long period.

2001, Gonyou, Keeling & Keeling, Social Behaviour in Farm Animals, CABI Publishing, published 2001, page 63:

First, humans are altricial, with immature newborns and a long childhood.

2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 281:

First, compared to other species, babies are altricial, meaning that they are weak, undermuscled, fat, and uncoordinated (sorry, babies, but it's true).

2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 5, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN:

(zoology) Helpless at birth (of young animals); or having young which are helpless at birth.


proliferous

proliferous (comparative more proliferous, superlative most proliferous)

more proliferous (comparative)
most proliferous (superlative)


phytophagy

From phyto- (“plant”) + -phagy (“to feed on”).


phytophagous

en-adj

phytophagous (comparative more phytophagous, superlative most phytophagous)

more phytophagous (comparative)
most phytophagous (superlative)

(zoology) Feeding on plants, herbivorous.


vascular tissue

en-noun

vascular tissue (countable and uncountable, plural vascular tissues)

(zoology, anatomy) The arteries, veins, capillaries, and associated tissues in an animal.


unhinge

en-verb

unhinge (third-person singular simple present unhinges, present participle unhinging, simple past and past participle unhinged)

unhinges (present singular third-person)
unhinging (participle present)
unhinged (participle past)
unhinged (past)

Many snakes can unhinge their jaw joints to swallow large prey.


latid

(zoology) Any fish in the family Latidae.


parid

(zoology) Any bird in the family Paridae, the tits or chickadees


kistvaen

From Welsh cistfaen, from cist (“chest”) + maen (“stone”).

It was man of the New Stone Age who first peopled this upland, leaving remains of his hut-dwellings, his pounds, dolmens, and menhirs, his kistvaens and his cooking-holes.

(archaeology) A stone coffin in the form of a pit covered with earth and surrounded by stones.


segment

From Latin segmentum (“a piece cut off, a strip, segment of the earth, a strip of tinsel”), from secāre (“to cut”).

der

(zoology) One of several parts of an organism, with similar structure, arranged in a chain; such as a vertebra, or a third of an insect's thorax.

jaoke

zoology: one of several parts of an organism, with similar structure, arranged in a chain


pitting

en-noun

pitting (countable and uncountable, plural pittings)

Test pittings were carried out prior to the main excavation.


polyphagia

polyphagia (usually uncountable, plural polyphagias)

From poly- + -phagia, from Ancient Greek πολῠ́ς (polús, “many”) and ἔφᾰγον (éphagon, “eat”).

(zoology) The eating of many different types of food

moniruokaisuus

zoology: eating of many different types of food


polypod

en-adj

polypod (comparative more polypod, superlative most polypod)

more polypod (comparative)
most polypod (superlative)


hemolymph

en-noun

hemolymph (countable and uncountable, plural hemolymphs)

(zoology) A circulating fluid in the bodies of some invertebrates that is the equivalent of blood.

hemolimfa

a circulating fluid in the bodies of some invertebrates


petroglyph

/ˈpɛ.tɹəˌɡlɪf/

/ˈpɛ.tɹəʊˌɡlɪf/

/ˈpɛ.tɹəˌɡlɪf/

From French pétroglyphe, from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”) + γλυφή (gluphḗ, “carved work”). By surface analysis, petro- + glyph.

The petroglyphs of Central Asia form a long sequence from the Neolithic onwards.

1998, Henri-Paul Francfort, “17: Central Asian petroglyphs: between Indo-Iranian and shamanistic interpretations”, in Paul S. C. Taçon, editor, The Archaeology of Rock-Art, page 302:

Ninety-six petroglyph sites were reported in the original study (DiazGranados 1993). The majority of the petroglyphs are worn.

2000, Carol Diaz-Granados, James R. Duncan, The Petroglyphs and Pictographs of Missouri, page 102:

The islands of Tonga are not known for petroglyphs; however, one of the frontal stones of a langi called Mala'e Lahi on 'Uiha Island has one petroglyph of a human foot.

2001, Georgia Lee, “18: Oceania”, in David S. Whitley, editor, Handbook of Rock Art Research, page 578:

(archaeology) A rock carving, especially one made in prehistoric times.

maenengravadur

a rock carving, especially one made in prehistoric times


anopheles

From Ancient Greek ἀνωφελής (anōphelḗs, “useless”).

der

Analogy with the malaria-carrying mosquito points to the various kinds of anopheles, and perhaps to some species of the ordinary mosquito or culex, as being possible bearers of the disease.

1901 May 24, H. Watkins-Pitchford, “Horse-sickness investigation”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 6, page 162:

‘I brought it back from the desert – they have been planting rice like fools, and now you get anopheles right up to the gates of Alexandria!’

1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1125

(entomology) Loose terminology for species in the Anopheles genus of mosquitoes, some of which may transmit various parasites, Plasmodium, that are the cause of malaria. More strictly speaking, as Anopheles is a proper name it should be capitalised.

малари́чен кома́р

member of the Anopheles genus of mosquitos


sangsue

(zoology) A leech of the former genus Sanguisuga.


mesel

From Middle English mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Norman mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Old French mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Late Latin misellus (“leper”), from miser (“wretched, wretch”) + -ellus (“-elle”). Doublet of measles.

(zoology, obsolete) Synonym of diseased, particularly visibly displaying a diseased exterior.


denticulate

[…]the mouth is formed by a rather strong tooth over a denticulate margin, confronting what may be called the upper jaw,

1904, Thomas R. R. Stebbing, “South African Crustacea. Part II.”, in Marine Investigations in South Africa, volume 2, page 80:

Selaginella tarda differs from S. sertata in that the plants are smaller and lacking flagelliform shoots, the leaves are denticulate, and the median leaves are not peltate.

1992, Rogers McVaugh, William R. Anderson, Flora Novo-Galiciana: Gymnosperms and Pteridophytes, page 430:

(botany, zoology) Finely dentate, as a leaf edge; bearing many small toothlike structures.


spadix

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

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

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

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


Proto-Polynesian

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


Proto-Polynesian

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

Próta-Pholainéiseach

of or pertaining to the Proto-Polynesian language, or the people who spoke it


cuckoldry

en-noun

cuckoldry (countable and uncountable, plural cuckoldries)

(zoology) Among certain male fish, the practice of interrupting a mating pair to release sperm in an attempt to fertilize the female.


praenomen

praenomen (plural praenomens or praenomina)

From Latin praenōmen, from prae- (“pre-: before”) + nōmen (“name, family name”).

In the name Tyrannosaurus rex, "Tyrannosaurus" is the praenomen.

(zoology) The genus name in a binomial scientific name.


imprinting

imprinting (countable and uncountable, plural imprintings)

(psychology, ethology) Any kind of phase-sensitive learning (learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage) that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior.


leveling

leveling (countable and uncountable, plural levelings)

(surveying, archaeology) The process of measuring levels to establish heights and altitudes.


sloughing

If all sloughings were successfully recorded, which is not certain since rattle segments were not color-coded during this study, the interval between events averaged 246.1 days (1.5 sloughings per snake per year).

1995, Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History: Volume 38:

(zoology) The act of casting off the skin or shell; ecdysis.


microspore

(zoology) One of the numerous tiny spore-like elements produced through the encystment and subdivision of many monads


palmarium

(zoology) One of the bifurcations of the brachial plates of a crinoid.


cremaster

From Ancient Greek κρεμαστήρ (kremastḗr, “suspender”). Doublet of crémaillère.

uder

(zoology) In the pupae of certain species of butterfly, a hook-shaped protuberance from the rear of the chrysalis casing, by which the caterpillar fixes itself to the pad of silk it has cemented to the underside of a perch.


microblade

The upper Palaeolithic period saw the first production of microblade tools.

(archaeology, sometimes attributive) A small blade, typically produced in prehistoric times from silica-rich minerals.


epiphragm

(zoology) A dry layer of mucus used by a snail or mollusk to seal itself inside its shell during hibernation.


bladelet

(archaeology) A small stone blade with one sharp and one blunt edge


Iberomaurusian

(archaeology) Of or pertaining to a population of early humans that occupied the Mediterranean littoral from Morocco to Tunisia 22,000 to 9,000 years ago

ibéromaurusien

of or pertaining to a population of early humans that occupied the Mediterranean littoral from Morocco to Tunisia 22,000 to 9,000 years ago


Capsian

From French capsien, from Latin Capsianus, from Capsa (“Gafsa”) + -ianus (“-ian”).

(archaeology) of or pertaining to a Paleolithic culture of North Africa (named after primary findings there, in the now southern Tunisian oasis Gafsa) and southern Europe


endscraper

(archaeology) A small, rounded flint tool used to scrape hides; sometimes fitted to a bone handle.


aceramic

At Çatal Hüyük we can actually study the transition from an aceramic Neolithic with baskets and wooden vessels to a ceramic Neolithic with the first pottery.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, quoting James Mellaart, Çatal Hüyük, 1967, p. 22, quoted in The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 138:

(archaeology, of a culture, period, or site) Having no pottery or other ceramicware items.


bifacial

(archaeology, of a flint tool) Having two sharp cutting edges.


Acheulean

From French acheuléen, from Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens where the first tools from this period were found.

Assuming that language ability extends back to the hominids, we see a slow process of cultural development over millions of years, and then in the Acheulean period of Homo erectus, about three hundred thousand years ago, we find the first engraved tool.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 95:

When early modern humans – the ones who would eventually become us – started to move out of Africa something over a hundred thousand years ago, Acheulean tools were the technology of choice.

2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 402:

(archaeology) Of or pertaining to a lower Paleolithic period characterized by the presence of flaked bifacial hand axes.


Acheulean

(archaeology) A lower Paleolithic period characterized by the presence of flaked bifacial hand axes.


mucro

Borrowed from Latin mucro. From 17th century.

(botany, zoology) A pointed end, often sharp, abruptly terminating an organ, such as a projection at the tip of a leaf; the posterior tip of a cuttlebone; or the distal part of the furcula in Collembola.


retouch

en-verb

retouch (third-person singular simple present retouches, present participle retouching, simple past and past participle retouched)

retouches (present singular third-person)
retouching (participle present)
retouched (participle past)
retouched (past)

(archaeology) To modify a flint tool by making secondary flaking along the cutting edge.


lorica

Borrowed from Latin lōrīca, literally "a corselet of thongs", probably from lorum (“thong”).

(zoology) The protective case or shell of a Loricifera, infusorian or rotifer


galea

Borrowed from Latin galea. Doublet of galley.

(entomology) A mouthpart found in some species of insect; a flap that is part of the maxilla, so-called after the flaps attached to the sides of a Roman helmet.


cursus

en-noun

cursus (plural cursuses or (both rare) cursus or cursūs or (nonstandard) cursi)

cursuses (plural)
cursus (plural rare)
cursūs (plural rare)
cursi (nonstandard plural rare)

Learned borrowing from Latin cursus. Doublet of course and cour.

(archaeology) A long ditch or trench of unknown function, constructed in Neolithic Britain and Ireland.


galline

en-adj

galline (comparative more galline, superlative most galline)

more galline (comparative)
most galline (superlative)

(zoology) of, or pertaining to, the chicken


carene

From French carène (“keel”), from Latin carīna (“keel”).

(zoology, obsolete) The lower portion of a marine animal's shell, covering its mantle.


scaleless

There are also some surprises such as Eurotamandua, a scaleless pangolin that looks astonishingly like a South American anteater.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 65:


autotomy

en-noun

autotomy (countable and uncountable, plural autotomies)

From auto- + -tomy, after German Autotomie or French autotomie.

She has dropped it by autotomy, like the tail or claw of a fleeing lizard, lobster, or starfish.

(chiefly zoology) The spontaneous removal of a limb, tail etc, especially by some invertebrates as a self-defense mechanism.


calamus

calamus (usually uncountable, plural calamuses or calami)

Learned borrowing from Latin calamus (“reed, cane”), from Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos). Doublet of culm, haulm, helm (Etymology 4), qalam, and shawm.

dbt

Thus, the four distinct feather parts that have been compared as to amino acid content to note whether or not the composition is uniform are rachis, barbs, calamus and medulla.

1956, Advisory Board on Quartermaster Research and Development, The Utilization of Chicken Feathers as Filling Materials, page 9:

In follicles late in feather growth, after rupture of the feather sheath, this canal contained the upper part of the calamus.

1969, RIC Spearman, “The epidermis and feather follicles of the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonica) (aves)”, in Zeitschrift für Morphologie der Tiere:

Chapin asserted that the calamus is firmly fixed in the wing

1969, CH Fry, “Structural and functional adaptation to display in the Standard‐winged nightjar Macrodipteryx longipennis”, in Journal of Zoology:

(ornithology) A quill; the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather.


priapulid

From scientific Latin Priapulus (genus name) + -id.

Like Kimberella’s scrape marks that connect it to modern mollusks, these ancient burrows were certainly created, if not by true priapulids, then by something very similar indeed.

2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 30:

The holes that litter the seabed are entrances to the burrows of priapulids – ‘penis worms’, named for their appearance – and their armoured cousins, the palaeoscolecids.

2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherlands, Penguin, published 2023, page 254:

(zoology) Any small marine worm of the phylum Priapulida.


dipinto

Borrowed from Italian dipinto (literally “painting”).

(archaeology, epigraphy) a sketched or painted (as opposed to engraved) inscription.


lone wolf

I am a lone wolf, a solitary man, wandering through a world in which I have no part. I am wifeless—childless—who is it speaks of the childless as the dead twigs on the tree of life?

1899, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter I, in The Sleeper Awakes:

You'll never mix in. You'll be a lone wolf. I seen that right off. Wal, if a man can stand the loneliness, an' if he's quick on the draw, mebbe lone-wolfin' it is the best.

(figuratively) A person who avoids the company of others; a loner; an independent or solitary person.


papilio

(zoology) Any butterfly of the genus Papilio.


pye

(zoology) Ellipsis of pye-dog (an Indian breed, a stray dog in Indian contexts).


dioecious

/daɪ̯ˈiːʃəs/

(zoology, rare) Having two distinct sexes.


barbule

PIE word
 *bʰardʰéh₂
Borrowed from Latin barbula (“little beard”).

(ornithology) Any of the secondary barbs that form a fringe of small projections on a feather.


Capoid

(anthropology) a member of the racial classification of humanity composed of the Khoi and San people of Southern Africa.


radiole

From Late Latin radiolus (“a fossil echinoid’s spine”), from Latin radius (“rod, staff”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁t- (“beam, pole, post”)) + -olus (diminutive suffix) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-lós). The word first appears in the works of Scottish natural historian and marine zoologist Charles Wyville Thomson (1830–1882).

der

Radioles or spines [...] are the appendages articulating upon the tubercles. The different parts of the spines are the socket by which it is articulated to the tubercles; the lower part of the radiole is called the head, and is separated from the neck, which is usually smooth or finely striated, by the milled ring,—a prominent ridge more or less deeply grooved, serving as an attachment for the muscles which are to move the spine; beyond the neck we have the body or shaft of the spine.

1874, Alexander Agassiz, “Terminology”, in Revision of the Echini (Illustrated Catalogue of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, at Harvard College; VII), part IV (Structure and Embryology of the Echini), Cambridge, Mass.: University Press; Welch, Bigelow, & Co., →OCLC, page 636:

The radioles of the second size are about 8 millims. in length and 2 millims. in width, very much compressed and flattened, rounded at the end and finely striated longitudinally. They are articulated in a single row to the small tubercles round the edge of the areola, and in their natural attitude they lean over the naked part of the areola and cover the muscles and the head of the large radiole like a frill.

1874 April 9, [Charles] Wyville Thomson, “XXI. On the Echinoidea of the ‘Porcupine’ Deep-sea Dredging-expeditions”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, volume 164, part II, London: Printed by Taylor and Francis, […], →OCLC, part I, page 725:

Archæocidaris sp. b. [...] This form, which is very imperfectly known, is based on two specimens. One of these shows the distal end of the radiole, which is seen to expand rather abruptly from a very slender shaft having a diameter of about three-fourths mm. into a subspherical end which has a diameter of 2 mm. The terminal portion and the shaft adjacent appear to be armed with short spinules. Associated with the foregoing is the proximal portion of a radiole, showing a long, slender, smooth, cylindrical shaft, which has a diameter of about three-fourths mm., with the usual subterminal collar near the lower end.

1908, George H. Girty, “Echinoidea”, in The Guadalupian Fauna (Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey Professional Paper; 58), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 110:

The species P. wellmanae would here be synonymised with P. duncani if only the holotype test was known. The younger Te Piki test fragments are indistinguishable from P. wellmanae (and P. duncani), but the radioles differ from those of P. duncani (i.e., P. wellmanae is here being distinguished by features not seen in this holotype). Discovery of topotype radioles will be necessary to confirm the present interpretation and usage.

1982 November 26, G. M. Philip, “A Pleistocene Occurrence of the Cidaroid Echinoid Genus Phyllacanthus in New Zealand”, in Robert P. Lynch, editor, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, volume 25, number 3, Wellington: Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 366, column 1:

Fabricia bikinii, n. sp. [...] The tentacular crown is composed of three pairs of symmetrical radioles; in addition there are shorter, entire, paired filamentous processes, or palpi, at the ventral end of the crown [...]. Each radiole has 6 to 8 pairs of slender filaments that arise along the basal half of the radiole; these filaments extend distally not quite as far as the radioles to which they are attached.

1954, Olga Hartman, “Systematic Descriptions”, in Marine Annelids from the Northern Marshall Islands: Bikini and nearby Atolls, Marshall Islands (Geological Survey Professional Paper; 260-Q), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 641, column 1:

The anterior segments of sabellid and serpulid worms are modified in two important ways: the head has a crown of pinnate radioles arranged in two spirals or semicircles above the mouth, and some of the anterior segments form a thoracic region [...]. In the Serpulidae, one (sometimes two) of the radioles is modifed as an operculum, which blocks the mouth of the tube when the worm retreats.

1990, Vernon A. Harris, “Tube-dwelling Worms (Annelida – Polychaeta)”, in Sessile Animals of the Sea Shore, London, New York, N.Y.: Chapman and Hall, →ISBN, section 7.2 (Structures Related to a Tubicolous Life Style), page 119:

Family Sabellidae [...] Head with a characteristic crown of 2 groups of pinnate projections called radioles [...], which sometimes bear eyes, and project from the tube when the worm is feeding.

2011, J. D. Fish, S. Fish, “Annelida”, in A Student’s Guide to the Seashore, 3rd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 170–171:

(zoology) A heavily ciliated feather-like tentacle occurring in clusters on the crowns of certain tubeworms, especially those of the order Canalipalpata (the fan-head worms), used for feeding and respiration.


Siberian Husky

en-noun

Siberian Husky (plural Siberian Huskies)

(zoology) A medium-sized spitz breed of dog originally used for herding reindeer and pulling sleighs.


companionate marriage

companionate marriage (plural companionate marriages)

(social history, anthropology) A conception of marriage where complicity, communication and support between spouses are considered important, rather than purely material questions of inheritance etc.