Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Chelonian
/kɪˈloʊniən/noun
A turtle, tortoise or terrapin, or anything belonging to that group of shelled reptiles.
The Greek roots
χελώνη
khelṓnē
tortoise
Literally: “of the tortoise”
Follow a root:χελώνη1 word
The story of the word
χελώνη gave the Greeks their first musical instrument as well as their tortoise. Hermes, in the Homeric Hymn, finds one at his door on the day he is born, guts it and strings the shell into a lyre. Zoologists took the word for the turtle order in the early nineteenth century, and Roman soldiers had already borrowed the animal itself for the testudo, a roof of locked shields.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
cheloniachelonite
In a sentence
The reserve treats injured chelonians brought in by fishermen.
Chelonian shells are fused ribs, not armour worn over the body.