sphragis
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English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈsfræd͡ʒɪs/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun[edit]
sphragis (plural sphragides)
- (zoology, especially entomology) A mating plug in the genital opening of a female, formed from a waxy secretion deposited by a male during mating.
- 1999, Roger Laurence Kitching, Biology of Australian Butterflies, page 129:
- The plastic mass begins to harden quite rapidly, probably within a few minutes but, as largely hollow sphragides have been dissected from pairs killed in copula, possibly more than one ejaculation may be required to complete the body of the sphragis.
- 2008, Andrew F. E. Neild, The butterflies of Venezuela:
- Mated females of many acraeine species bear an unusual structure around their genital opening. Such structures are called sphragides (singular: sphragis), or more rarely spermatophragma (Ehrlich & Ehrlich, 1978; Orr, 1995).
- 2009, Sharman Apt Russell, An Obsession With Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair With A Singular Insect:
- Bert first began studying sphragides in the Australian Big Greasy. The male, patterned in red, white, and black, is larger than the female and violent in his mating.
- Synonym of sphragide
- 2003, W. Rudolph Reinbacher, Healing Earths: The Third Leg of Medicine : a History of Minerals in Medicine with Rare Illustrations from 300 to 1000 Years Ago:
- This made Lenian earth the first sgillated medicinal earth and wherever in literature the term terra sigillata appears without a location suffix, it refers to Lemnian earth, sometimes called Lemnia sphragis which is Greek for terra sigillata from Lemnos.
- 2012, Nicholas Everett, The Alphabet of Galen: Pharmacy from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, page 359:
- The best Siopic red ochre is found on the island of Lemnos, and is called sphragis.
Synonyms[edit]
- (zoology): copulation plug, copulatory plug, coitus plug, sperm plug, vaginal plug, sement
Related terms[edit]
References[edit]
- “sphragis”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- Mating plug on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Latin[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Ancient Greek σφραγίς (sphragís, “seal”).
Noun[edit]
sphrāgis f (genitive sphrāgidis); third declension
- A kind of stone used for seals
- (mineralogy) Lemnian earth
- A little ball of plaster in medicine
Declension[edit]
Third-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | sphrāgis | sphrāgidēs |
Genitive | sphrāgidis | sphrāgidum |
Dative | sphrāgidī | sphrāgidibus |
Accusative | sphrāgidem | sphrāgidēs |
Ablative | sphrāgide | sphrāgidibus |
Vocative | sphrāgis | sphrāgidēs |
References[edit]
- “sphragis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Categories:
- English 2-syllable words
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- en:Zoology
- en:Entomology
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- Latin terms borrowed from Ancient Greek
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- Latin feminine nouns in the third declension
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- la:Mineralogy
- la:Gems