Etymology

actinal

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Today it means: Pertaining to the side or surface around the mouth in an animal that has radial symmetry such as a starfish. Full definition →

Ancient Greek ἀκτίς, ἀκτῖν-
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromἀκτίς, ἀκτῖν-“ray”
  2. English todayactinal

From Ancient Greek ἀκτίς, ἀκτῖν- (aktís, aktîn-, “ray”) + -al. The usage was coined by Louis Agassiz (See quotations below.).

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekἀκτίς, ἀκτῖν- all →

actinic

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.