Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Urodele
/ˈjʊərədiːl/noun
A salamander or newt, member of the amphibian order that keeps its tail into adult life.
The Greek roots
οὐρά
ourá
tail
δῆλος
dêlos
visible, evident
Literally: “with visible tail”
The story of the word
Salamanders come through metamorphosis with the tail intact, and the order name points straight at it. Set beside anuran, tailless, the two words divide the amphibians by what is left at the far end of the animal. δῆλος is the adjective the Greeks connected with Delos, the island said to have been invisible until it was fixed in place for Leto to give birth on.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
anuransquirreluropygial
In a sentence
Urodeles regrow a severed limb, which is why laboratories keep axolotls.
Six urodele species live in the caves along that ridge.