operculum

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Illustration of a fish's opercular series, with the operculum (yellow), preoperculum (red), interoperculum (green) and suboperculum (pink).
Sea snail with its operculum covering the aperture.
The operculum of the brain.
Flower buds of Eucalyptus erythrocorys, with and without opercula.

Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin operculum.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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operculum (plural opercula)

  1. (zoology) A covering flap in animals, such as a gill cover.
    • 2017 January 18, Susannah Lydon, The Guardian[1]:
      Hyoliths […] have a small, conical calcium carbonate shell, with a lid called an operculum.
  2. (botany) The lidlike portion of a moss sporangium or of a fruit that detaches to allow the dispersal of spores or seeds.
  3. (dentistry) A gum flap covering (part of) a partially erupted tooth, usually a wisdom tooth.
  4. A structure which serves as a cover or lid.
  5. (anatomy) One of several flaps of cerebral cortex covering the insula. (clarification of this definition is needed)

Derived terms

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Translations

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Latin

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Etymology

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From operiō (I close) +‎ -culum.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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operculum n (genitive operculī); second declension

  1. cover, covering

Declension

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Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative operculum opercula
Genitive operculī operculōrum
Dative operculō operculīs
Accusative operculum opercula
Ablative operculō operculīs
Vocative operculum opercula

Descendants

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  • English: opercle, operculum
  • French: opercule
  • Italian: opercolo
  • Portuguese: opérculo
  • Spanish: opérculo

References

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  • operculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • operculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • operculum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • operculum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers