termes

English

Etymology

From the translingual Termes (genus name), from Late Latin termes, late variant of Classical Latin tarmes (“woodworm”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɜːmiːz/

Noun

termes (plural termites)

1. A termite.
   • 1781, Henry Smeathman, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, LXXI, page 160:

     These turret nests, built by two different species of Termites.

   • 1800, The Asiatic Annual Register, page 5/2:

     The termes, or what is called the white ant, infests this island.

   • 1834, Thomas Pringle, chapter VIII, in African Sketches, page 287:

     The termes of South Africa is not the destructive species.

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

Derived terms

• termite

Translations

References

• “‖Termes” on page 203/2 of § 2 (T–Th, ed. James Augustus Henry Murray) of part ii (Su–Th) of volume IX (Si–Th, 1919) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1st ed.)
• “‖termes” in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed., 1989)

Anagrams

• Emerts, Mester, S meter, Tesmer, merest, mester, meters, metres, restem

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

Noun

termes

1. plural of terme

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

termes m

1. plural of terme

Anagrams

• mestre, mètres, remets

Galician

Verb

termes

1. second-person singular present subjunctive of termar

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈter.mes/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈter.mes/,

Etymology 1

Traditionally derived from terō (“I rub away”), but unknown. Alternatively connected either with tener (“tender, young”) and Sabine terenum (“soft”), from Proto-Indo-European *ter- (“tender, soft, weak, young, small”), particularly if the original meaning was “weak branch” or “young shoot”,(Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) or with termen (“end”), if the original meaning was “end, tip” (compare the cognates Proto-Germanic *þrumą (“butt, end, stump”) and Armenian թարմ (tʻarm, “end-piece”)).

Noun

termes m (genitive termitis); third declension

1. a branch or bough of a tree, especially one severed thence

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Horace to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Grattius to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Columella to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sextus Pompeius Festus to this entry?)

   • ante AD 180, Aulus Gellius (author), John Carew Rolfe (editor and translator), Noctes Atticae in The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, with an English Translation (1927), book II, chapter xxvi, §§ 9–10:

     Nam ‘poeniceus,’ quem tu Graece φοίνικα dixisti, noster est et ‘rutilus’ et ‘spadix,’ poenicei συνώνυμος, qui factus e Graeco noster est, exuberantiam splendoremque significant ruboris, quales sunt fructus palmae arboris non admodum sole incocti, unde spadici et poeniceo nomen est; enim Dorice vocant avulsum e palma termitem cum fructu.

     For poeniceus, which you call φοῖνιξ in Greek, belongs to our language, and rutilus and spadix, a synonym of poeniceus which is taken over into Latin from the Greek, indicate a rich, gleaming shade of red like that of the fruit of the palm-tree when it is not fully ripened by the sun. And from this spadix and poeniceus get their name; for spadix in Doric is applied to a branch torn from a palm-tree along with its fruit. ― translation from the same source

   • ibidem, book III, chapter ix, § 9:

     Quem colorem nos, sicuti dixi, poeniceum dicimus, Graeci partim φοίνικα, alii σπάδικα appellant, quoniam palmae termes ex arbore cum fructu avulsus “spadix” dicitur.

     This colour, as I have said, we call poeniceus; the Greeks sometimes name it φοῖνιξ, at others σπάδιξ, since the branch of the palm (φοῖνιξ), torn from the tree with its fruit, is called spadix. ― translation from the same source

Declension

Third-declension noun.

References

Further reading

• “termĕs¹”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• termĕs¹ in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.: “1,559/2”
• “termes” on page 1,926/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)

Etymology 2

See tarmes (“woodworm”).

Noun

termes m (genitive termitis); third declension

1. (Late Latin) Alternative spelling of tarmes (“woodworm”)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Maurus Servius Honoratus to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Isidore of Seville to this entry?)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

• Translingual: Termes (taxonomic name)
  • English: termes
• French: termite
• German: Termite
• Italian: termite

References

• “termes²”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “termes”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• termĕs⁴ in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.: “1,559/2”
• “termes”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• “termes”, in Richard Stillwell et al., editor (1976), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press

Anagrams

• Termes, tremes