Meanings
- uncountableThe "theology of shellfish", or the study of divine or spiritual significance attributed to shellfish, such as clams, oysters, and other mollusks.
Chemnitz was a promoter of a form of natural theology known as testaceotheology or the use of molluscs for preaching.
2025 January 31, Wikipedia contributors, “Christoph Samuel John”, in English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation1 more example
Friedrich-Christian Lesser’s Théologie des insectes appeared in two French translation, in 1742 and 1745. But there were not only insects, and the material was inexhaustible: a Lithotheology, a Testaceotheology, a Petinotheology, and an Ichthyotheology all appeared. What had begun as a pious intention became a bookselling enterprise.
1993, Jaques Roger, translated by Robert Ellrich, edited by Keith R. Benson, The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought, Stanford University Press, translation of original in French, page 197
Origin
From the stem of Latin testāceus (“shelled”) + -o- + theology.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
testaceotheology. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/testaceotheology
“testaceotheology.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/testaceotheology. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “testaceotheology,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/testaceotheology.
Source: testaceotheology on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.