Etymology
The short-tailed snake's tail comprises less than ten percent of the snake's total length, hence the common name. Named by A. Erwin Brown in 1890, Stilosoma extenuatum derives its generic name from the Greek stylos for pillar and soma for body. This refers to the stiffness of the short-tailed snake's body, which is caused by its wide and inflexible column of unusually short vertebrae. The specific name, extenuatum, is Latin for thin or slender.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)