haltere

• halter

From Ancient Greek ἁλτῆρες (haltêres, “weights held in the hand to give an impetus in leaping”). Note that in the original Greek, there seems to have been no singular for ἁλτῆρες (haltêres), and some authorities maintain that halteres is a plurale tantum, but in English entomological usage, haltere sometimes appears as a back-formation. Sometimes the singular halter is used instead, but this may lead to confusion with other, unrelated meanings of halter.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhæltɪə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhæltɪɹ/
• plural halteres pronounced IPA^(key): /hælˈtɪɹiːz/

haltere (plural halteres)

1. (entomology) A small knobbed structure in some two-winged insects, one of a pair that are flapped rapidly and function as accelerometers to maintain stability in flight.
   • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherlands, Penguin, published 2023, page 166:

     Whenever the fly changes direction at an angle to the hinge, the shaking bends the halteres at their base and turns them into a gyroscope.

• Leather, Tar Heel, Tarheel, leather, lethera

• halter

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἁλτῆρες (haltêres, “a type of dumbbell used in Ancient Greece”).

• Hyphenation: hal‧te‧re

haltere m (plural halteres)

1. dumbbell (a weight with two disks attached to a short bar)

   Synonym: peso

• halterofilia
• halterofilismo
• halterofilista

• IPA^(key): [halˈtere]

haltere f pl

1. inflection of halteră:
   1. indefinite plural
   2. indefinite genitive/dative singular