Monthly Archives: December 2023

This is a series of posts on interesting and unusual words and phrases.

The first set of words are adjectives that describe a shape and are often used in botany, mineralogy, and describing artistic forms.

The word for today is clypeate or clypeiform: shield or buckler-shape, from the Latin clypeus.

Clipeus:

Pliny the Elder also describes the custom of having a bust-portrait of an ancestor painted on a clipeus, and having it hung in a temple or other public place. From this round bas-reliefs in a medallion on sarcophagi and in other forms are known as imago clipeata or “clipeus portraits”,[2] a term usually restricted to Roman art.

Clipeus of Iupiter-Ammon, conserved at the Museu Nacional Arqueològic de Tarragona

This is a series of posts on interesting and unusual words and phrases.

The first set of words are adjectives that describe a shape and are often used in botany, mineralogy, and describing artistic forms.

The word for today is capillaceous: hair-like in shape, from the Latin capillaceus, “hairy”, from capillus, hair

A term often applied to aquatic plants such as the Blunt-fruited Water-starwort (Callitriche obtusangula)

https://www.natureplprints.com/2020vision/2/aquatic-plants-river-itchen-blunt-fruited-15363699.html

This is a series of posts on interesting and unusual words and phrases.

The first set of words are adjectives that describe a shape and are often used in botany, mineralogy, and describing artistic forms.

The word for today is calyptriform : of the shape of a calyptra or candle-extinguisher, from the Greek, kalúptra, “covering or veiling”.

Porpolomopsis calyptriformis (Berk.) Bresinsky – Pink Waxcap

https://wordpress.com/post/stewardarchives.com/1768

This is a series of posts on interesting and unusual words and phrases.

The first set of words are adjectives that describe a shape and are often used in botany, mineralogy, and describing artistic forms.

The word for today is calathiform: of the shape of a basket, from the Latin, calathus. Hemispherical or concave, like a bowl or cup.

Twelve flowers on three inflorescences on a 33-leaf plant 19-cm high and 14-cm wide mounted vertically covering the front of a small barkless log; leaves elliptical, entire, 3.5 cm wide by 5.0 cm long borne singly on cylindrical pseudobulbs 0.4 cm wide by 1.0 cm tall; sepals, petals and lip pure white; rolled dorsal sepal projects forward over column; lip calathiform (cup shaped); column white, brown on superior surface, black spot apically; substance firm; texture crystalline; strongly fragrant, reminiscent of cinnamon; recognized as a lovely alba form of the species; https://www.aos.org/sitf-blog/meiracyllium-trinasutum-var-album-2023-04-30.aspx

This is a series of posts on interesting and unusual words and phrases.

The first set of words are adjectives that describe a shape and are often used in botany, mineralogy, and describing artistic forms.

The word for today is aciniform: of the shape of a cluster of grapes, from the Latin, acinus.

Aciniform spider’s silk:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369702111700578

Structure of spinnerets

The paired spinnerets have one to three segments. They are highly maneuverable for silk spinning and may be quite short or relatively long (as long as the abdomen in some mygalomorph spiders). The end segment of each spinneret has many spigots – hollow, hair-like silk outlets connected to particular paired silk glands within the abdomen. Each gland opens on the spinnerets either via one or two spigots (ampullate glands), several spigots (cylindrical glands), or many spigots (pyriform and aciniform glands). In addition, the cylindrical and aciniform glands open onto two spinnerets. https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/silk-the-spiders-success-story/