serpula

See also: Serpula

English

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serpula

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Serpula

Etymology

From Latin serpula. See serpent.

Noun

serpula (plural serpulas or serpulae)

1. Any of numerous species of tubicolous annelids of the genus Serpula and allied genera of the family Serpulidae that secrete a calcareous tube, usually irregularly contorted, but sometimes spirally coiled, with a wreath of plumelike and often bright-colored gills around its head, and usually an operculum to close the aperture of its tube when it retracts.

   Synonyms: calcareous tubeworm, serpulid tubeworm, fanworm, plume worm

Derived terms

• serpulite

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “serpula”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• epurals, perusal

Latin

Etymology

From serpō (“crawl”). Seems to end in the diminutive suffix -ula and function as a diminutive of serpēns (“serpent, snake”), although not directly built on the latter's stem.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛr.pʊ.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛr.pu.la]

Noun

serpula f (genitive serpulae); first declension

1. a little snake, a little serpent

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	serpula	serpulae
genitive	serpulae	serpulārum
dative	serpulae	serpulīs
accusative	serpulam	serpulās
ablative	serpulā	serpulīs
vocative	serpula	serpulae

References

• “serpula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “serpula”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.