Etymology

coelacanth

C3O1E1L1A1C3A1N1T1H4

Today it means: Any of the class Actinistia of primitive lobe-finned fish in the order Coelacanthiformes—thought to have been extinct for 70 million years until a living specimen was discovered in 1938. Most species are large and plump and they all have bodies covered in tough elasmoid scales that act as armor. Full definition →

Ancient Greek κοῖλος
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromκοῖλος“hollow”
  2. English todaycoelacanth

From the New Latin genus name Coelacanthus, from Ancient Greek κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”) + ἄκανθα (ákantha, “spine”), referring to the hollow caudal fin rays of the first fossil specimen described and named by Louis Agassiz in 1839.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekκοῖλος all →

-coelcoelanaglyphiccoelo--coeloussyringocoeletelocoel

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.