Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Trilobite
/ˈtraɪləbaɪt/noun
An extinct marine arthropod with a segmented shell divided lengthwise into three lobes.
The Greek roots
τρι-
tri-
three
λοβός
lobós
lobe
Literally: “three-lobed one”
The story of the word
The three lobes run lengthwise, a raised central ridge with a flatter lobe on each side, and not head, middle and tail as most people count them. Walch named the group in 1771, long before anyone could say what sort of animal it had been. Their eyes were built of calcite crystals grown with the optical axis pointing the right way, the only mineral lenses known in the animal record.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
lobelobotomytripodtrilogy
In a sentence
The Welsh slate quarries turned up trilobites by the barrowload.
A trilobite rolled up like a woodlouse is the collector's prize.