byssus

See also: Byssus

English

A mussel (genus Mytilus), attached to a rock by its byssus (filaments)

Etymology

From Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value), from Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value), from Ancient Greek βύσσος (bússos, a very fine yellowish flax and the linen woven from it), from Hebrew בּוּץ (búts), Aramaic בּוּצָא (būṣā).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈbɪsəs/
  • Rhymes: -ɪsəs

Noun

byssus (usually uncountable, plural byssi or byssuses)

  1. The long fine silky filaments excreted by several mollusks (particularly Pinna nobilis) by which they attach themselves to the sea bed, and from which sea silk is manufactured.
  2. Sea silk manufactured from these filaments.
  3. (mycology) The stipe or stem of some fungi which are particularly thin and thread-like.

Translations

References

  • The Compact edition of the Oxford English dictionary: complete text reproduced micrographically and Supplement, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1987
  • Webster's Third New International Dictionary (Unabridged), G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976

Latin

Alternative forms

  • bissus

Etymology

From Ancient Greek βύσσος (bússos, a very fine yellowish flax and the linen woven from it), from Biblical Hebrew בּוּץ (búts), Aramaic בּוש (bus).

Pronunciation

Noun

byssus f (genitive byssī); second declension

  1. Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value) or sea silk

Declension

Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value)

Descendants

References

  • byssus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • byssus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • byssus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • byssus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
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