Word origins

• suffragatorSomeone who votes.
• suffrutescentSlightly woody or shrubby at the base.
• suggestumA raised platform.
• sui generisIn a class of its own; one of a kind.
• summa cum laudeWith highest (of three degrees of) praise; as noted, as an honor, on diplomas and degrees for work that is considered to be of the highest quality.
• suovetauriliaA religious rite of Ancient Rome, the triple sacrifice of a pig, a ram, and a bull to the deity Mars in order to bless and purify land.
• superateTo rise above; to overtop; to cover.
• superciliumThe region of the eyebrows.
• supererogateSupererogatory.
• superiusThe highest voice or part in early polyphony.
• supplicavitA writ issued by the King's Bench or Chancery for taking the surety of the peace against a person.
• suppositioThe interpretation given to a term in a specific context.
• suppositio materialisThe use of a word autonymously, or as a name for itself
• supposititiousSpurious; substituted for the genuine, counterfeit; fake.
• supracheliceralLocated above the chelicerae.
• surcleA little shoot or branch; a twig; a sucker.
• surculusA shoot from a rootstock; a sucker.
• surjectTo form or to undergo surjection
• surrectupright
• surrectionA rising.
• SusianaThe Greco-Roman name for the ancient state founded by the Elamite civilization, of which Susa became the capital around 2700 BC.
• susotoxinA toxic basic substance obtained from cultures of the swine fever bacillus.
• sustentaculumA supporting structure, a body part that supports one or more other parts.
• sustentatioSuspense.
• susurrateTo whisper.
• susurrusA whispering or rustling sound; a murmur.
• sutorialPertaining to shoemakers or shoemaking.
• syllepsisA figure of speech in which one word simultaneously modifies two or more other words such that the modification must be understood differently with respect to each modified word; often causing humorous incongruity.
• sylvaticOf or pertaining to woods or woodland organisms; sylvan
• SymaeanOf, belonging to, or pertaining to Syme.
• SymplegadesA pair of rocks at the Bosphorus that clashed together whenever a vessel passed through.
• symposiacOf or pertaining to a symposium.
• sympoticOf or pertaining to the Ancient Greek symposium.
• synaxisA congregation.
• syncellusOne who holds an office in an Eastern Catholic or Orthodox Church roughly equivalent to that of an episcopal vicar in the Roman Catholic Church.
• synchysisA complicated, interlocking word-order pattern in early Latin verse, demonstrated by Virgil and his contemporaries.
• syngraphA document signed by both or all of the parties to a contract or bond.
• SyrastreneSynonym of Saurashtra.
• Syria PalaestinaThe renamed Roman province formerly known as Judaea.
• syrmaA long dress that trailed on the floor, worn by tragic actors.
• tabellionAn official scribe who had some of the minor functions of a notary in the Roman Empire and pre-revolutionary France.
• tabernariaeAncient Roman comedies dealing with the life of the lower classes.
• tabesA kind of slow bodily wasting or emaciating disease, often accompanying a chronic disease.
• tablinumAn anteroom in a house of ancient Rome, opening out of the atrium opposite the main entry and often containing the family statues and archives.
• tabula rasaA mind, as of a newborn, free of any impressions, notions, ideas, etc.
• tacetAn instruction indicating silence on the part of the performers of a piece.
• tactusThe sense of touch.
• taedium vitaeProfound ennui or weariness of one's life.
• talo-talus
• tapetumA membranous layer of tissue.
• tapetum lucidumA layer of tissue in the eye of many vertebrate animals, immediately behind or sometimes within the retina, that reflects visible light so as to increase the light available to the photoreceptors.
• tapinosisA figure of speech whereby something is given less importance by the name given it than it merits.
• tardigradeSluggish; moving slowly.
• TarpeiaA vestal virgin and daughter of Spurius Tarpeius who betrayed Rome to the Sabines by opening the gates of the citadel in exchange for what they wore on their arms; instead, she was crushed to death by their shields.
• TarpeianOnly used in Tarpeian Rock (“a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, used as an execution site in Ancient Rome”)
• TartessosThe Greek name of Carteia.
• TauricaAn ancient geographic region and peninsula, the name used by the Greeks and Romans for the modern Crimean Peninsula in Eastern Europe, internationally recognized as part of Ukraine but occupied by Russia.
• TauriniA Celto-Ligurian tribe of ancient Piedmont, whose chief town was Taurasi, near Turin.
• tauroboliumThe ritual slaughter of a bull.
• tectum argentiBismuth.
• tegulaA small sclerite situated above the base of the costal vein in the wings of various insects, and attached to the anterolateral portion of the mesonotum.
• TeleboaeA tribe of Acarnania descending from Teleboas.
• TelegonusThe youngest son of Circe and Odysseus.
• TelesphorusA god/personification of complete recuperation from illness or injury. He is a healer and a son of Asclepius and Epione.
• telluro-earth
• temp.In the time of (followed by an indicator of a historical period, especially a reigning monarch).
• tempus fugitSynonym of time flies.
• tenaculumA medical instrument consisting of a sharp hook attached to a handle; used mainly for taking up arteries and the like.
• tendo AchillisThe Achilles tendon.
• tenebralProfoundly dark.
• TenedosAn island of Turkey in the northern part of the Aegean Sea.
• tenendumThe clause in a deed wherein the tenure of the land is defined and limited.
• tentacularOf, or pertaining to, tentacles.
• tepidariumA warm room in a Roman baths that was usually heated by a hypocaust.
• teporLukewarmness, tepidness, moderate warmth.
• terebinthineOf or pertaining to the terebinth tree.
• terebraThe ovipositor of a female hymenopteran, that pierces.
• TereusA king of Thrace; husband of Procne
• tergiversateTo evade, to equivocate using subterfuge; to obfuscate in a deliberate manner.
• tergiversationThe act of abandoning something or someone, of changing sides; desertion; betrayal.
• tergiversatorOne who tergiversates.
• tergumThe upper or dorsal surface of an articulated animal such as an arthropod.
• terminus ad quemThe latest possible date of a nonpunctual event (period, era, etc.)
• terminus a quoThe lower limit of dating, as of the earliest plausible date at which a fact could have occurred or a document could have been written.
• terminus post quemThe earliest possible date for an event.
• terminus technicusA technical term, a term of art.
• terrae filiusA satirical orator who spoke at public ceremonies of the University of Oxford, and who ostensibly had official sanction for personal attacks.
• terra incognitaLand that has never been explored, mapped, or surveyed.
• terra nulliusEmpty land; land not legally belonging to anyone; no man's land.
• terriculamentA source of unnecessary or uncontrollable fear.
• tertialAny flight feather attached to the humerus (upper arm) of a bird.
• tertiateTo reduce by one third; especially, kill one third of (a group of people).
• tertiparousPregnant for the third time.
• tertium non daturFor every proposition, either it is true or its negation is true.
• tertium quidSomething intermediate between two classifications.
• terunciusAn ancient Roman coin worth one quarter of an as.
• testaceaAny of various shellfish, especially those of the obsolete orders Vermes or Acephala, or the suborder Thecosomata.
• testamenti factioThe legal capacity to compose a testamentum as a testator, available to any Roman citizen sui juris who had attained puberty (i.e. males of fourteen years or older and females of twelve years or older).
• testatumOne of the clauses of an English deed, enumerating the operative words of transfer, statement of consideration, money, etc.
• testificateA certificate of good character that was required to allow travel between parishes in the 18th and early 19th centuries.