Etymology

sterculiaceous

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Today it means: Of or relating to the family Sterculiaceae (a former name for Malvaceae) of polypetalous exogenous plants, mostly tropical, including the cocoa plant. Full definition →

translingual Sterculia ← Latin Sterculius
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromSterculius“the deity that presided over manuring”
  2. translingual · derived fromSterculia
  3. English todaysterculiaceous

From translingual Sterculia + -aceous, the typical genus, from Latin Sterculius (“the deity that presided over manuring”), from stercus (“dung”). So called because one of the original species has a foetid smell.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.