serpula
See also: Serpula
English
Noun
serpula (plural serpulas or serpulae)
- (zoology) Any of numerous species of tubicolous annelids of the genus Serpula and allied genera of the family Serpulidae that secrete a calcareous tube, usually irregularly contorted, but sometimes spirally coiled, with a wreath of plumelike and often bright-colored gills around its head, and usually an operculum to close the aperture of its tube when it retracts.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “serpula”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Latin
Etymology
From serpō (“crawl”). Seems to end in the diminutive suffix -ula and function as a diminutive of serpēns (“serpent, snake”), although not directly built on the latter's stem.
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈser.pu.la/, [ˈs̠ɛrpʊɫ̪ä]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈser.pu.la/, [ˈsɛrpulä]
Declension
First-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | serpula | serpulae |
| Genitive | serpulae | serpulārum |
| Dative | serpulae | serpulīs |
| Accusative | serpulam | serpulās |
| Ablative | serpulā | serpulīs |
| Vocative | serpula | serpulae |
References
- “serpula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- serpula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
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