emys

From the translingual genus name Emys and its etymon, the Classical Latin emys, from the Ancient Greek ἐμύς (emús).

• (Received Pronunciation, UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛmɪs/

emys (plural emydes)

1. (zoology) Any member of the small Emys genus of freshwater pond tortoises.
   • 1843, The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, XXV, page 57/2:

     Certain Emydes…tend to the Sea-tortoises or Turtles…and yet exhibit characters peculiar to themselves.

   • 1873, James Murdoch Geikie, The Great Ice Age and Its Relation to the Antiquity of Man, page 492, Appendix:

     Remains of the elephant…the beaver, the emys…and goats.

• (member of the Emys genus): emydian

• emydid

• “‖Emys” listed on page 136/2 of § 2 (E, ed. Henry Bradley) of volume III (D–E, 1897) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1st ed.)
• “‖emys” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed., 1989)

• Emys on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Seym, Syme, semy, yems, yes'm

From the Ancient Greek ἐμῠ́ς (emús).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈe.mys/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈe.mis/,

emys f (genitive emydos or emydis); third declension

1. a species of freshwater tortoise, probably the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis)
   • AD 77–79, Gaius Plinius Secundus (author), Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff (editor), Naturalis Historia (1906), book XXXII, chapter xii:

     geminus similiter victus in aquis terraque et testudinum effectusque par, honore habendo vel propter excellens in usu pretium figuraeque proprietatem. sunt ergo testudinum genera terrestres, marinae, lutariae et quae in dulci aqua vivunt. has quidam e graecis emydas appellant.

     The tortoise, too, is an animal that is equally amphibious with the beaver, and possessed of medicinal properties as strongly developed; in addition to which, it claims an equal degree of notice for the high price which luxury sets upon its shell, and the singularity of its conformation. Of tortoises, there are various kinds, land tortoises, sea tortoises, tortoises which live in muddy waters, and tortoises which live in fresh; these last being known to some Greek authors by the name of “emydes.” ― translation from: John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, The Natural History (1855), book XXXII: “Remedies Derived from Aquatic Animals”, chapter xiv (iv): ‘The Tortoise: Sixty-Six Remedies and Observations’

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:emys.

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, normal variant or non-Greek-type).

¹In poetry.

• Translingual: Emys (genus)
• English: emys

• “ĕmys”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ĕmys in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 587/3.
• “emys” on page 606/3 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)