sphragis

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word sphragis. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word sphragis, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say sphragis in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word sphragis you have here. The definition of the word sphragis will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofsphragis, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Pronunciation

Noun

sphragis (plural sphragides)

  1. (zoology, especially entomology) A mating plug in the genital opening of a female, formed from a waxy secretion deposited by a male during mating.
    • 1999, Roger Laurence Kitching, Biology of Australian Butterflies, page 129:
      The plastic mass begins to harden quite rapidly, probably within a few minutes but, as largely hollow sphragides have been dissected from pairs killed in copula, possibly more than one ejaculation may be required to complete the body of the sphragis.
    • 2008, Andrew F. E. Neild, The butterflies of Venezuela:
      Mated females of many acraeine species bear an unusual structure around their genital opening. Such structures are called sphragides (singular: sphragis), or more rarely spermatophragma (Ehrlich & Ehrlich, 1978; Orr, 1995).
    • 2009, Sharman Apt Russell, An Obsession With Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair With A Singular Insect:
      Bert first began studying sphragides in the Australian Big Greasy. The male, patterned in red, white, and black, is larger than the female and violent in his mating.
  2. Synonym of sphragide
    • 2003, W. Rudolph Reinbacher, Healing Earths: The Third Leg of Medicine : a History of Minerals in Medicine with Rare Illustrations from 300 to 1000 Years Ago:
      This made Lenian earth the first sgillated medicinal earth and wherever in literature the term terra sigillata appears without a location suffix, it refers to Lemnian earth, sometimes called Lemnia sphragis which is Greek for terra sigillata from Lemnos.
    • 2012, Nicholas Everett, The Alphabet of Galen: Pharmacy from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, page 359:
      The best Siopic red ochre is found on the island of Lemnos, and is called sphragis.

Synonyms

References

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σφραγίς (sphragís, “seal”).

Noun

sphrāgis f (genitive sphrāgidis); third declension

  1. A kind of stone used for seals
  2. (mineralogy) Lemnian earth
  3. A little ball of plaster in medicine

Declension

Third-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative sphrāgis sphrāgidēs
genitive sphrāgidis sphrāgidum
dative sphrāgidī sphrāgidibus
accusative sphrāgidem sphrāgidēs
ablative sphrāgide sphrāgidibus
vocative sphrāgis sphrāgidēs

References

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia