Etymology

ophiothricid

O1P3H4I1O1T1H4R1I1C3I1D2

Today it means: Any in the family Ophiotrichidae of brittle stars. Full definition →

Ancient Greek ὄφις ← translingual -idae
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The story

  1. translingual · derived from-idae
  2. Ancient Greek · derived fromθρῐ́ξ“hair”
  3. Ancient Greek · derived fromὄφις“snake”
  4. English todayophiothricid

From the taxonomic name Ophiothricidae, a misspelling of Ophiotrichidae, from the generic name Ophiothrix (from Ancient Greek ὄφις (óphis, “snake”) + Ancient Greek θρῐ́ξ (thrĭ́x, “hair”)) + translingual -idae Why Ophiothricidae is a misspelling According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, taxonomic family names are formed from the stem of the name of the type genus (Ophiothrix), which is the genitive singular form after the ending is removed. The consonants in Ancient Greek θρῐ́ξ (thrĭ́x, “hair”) are due to the underlying χ (aspirated) in the stem becoming ξ (unaspirated) before the nominative singular ending, ς. The genitive singular form is τρῐχός (trĭkhós) instead of *θρῐχός (*thrĭkhós), due to Grassman's Law, which deaspirates θ to τ when there is an aspirated consonant in the next syllable (the χ). The stem of Ophiothrix is thus "Ophiotrich-"

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekὄφις all →

ophidianophiolitehydrophidophid-ophidiariumophio-ophiolatryophiure

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.