Latin Words

najig21

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 9, 2002
Messages
43
Hi. I'm a Latin student, mainly so I can figure out what these names of arachnids mean. Anywho, this morning I was flipping through my Latin-English dictionary. I happened to see the word "sarcastic". In Latin, it's "aculeatus". This is another form of "aculeus", which is the second part of a scorpion's telson. (the "needle") So I looked that word up and it means "sting" or "barb". So "sarcastic" means "stinging" literally. So that's two birds I learned with one stone. I know a lot of these, so if you have any questions, you can ask me. (by no means do I know all of them, or even most of them) Does anyone else know some of these? I think it's rather interesting to find out the origins of their names.
 

skinheaddave

SkorpionSkin
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 15, 2002
Messages
4,341
Gracilis? There is also a moth, I believe, with gracilis as the species name. What does it mean?

Cheers,
Dave
 

najig21

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 9, 2002
Messages
43
Gracilis means "slender" or "meager". I don't know what moth you're refering to, but this makes sense for the Centruroides gracilis.
 
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