Inquiline (noun) (zoology)
in-kwil-ine
An animal exploiting the living space of another, e.g. an insect that lays its eggs in a gall produced by another.
Mid 17th century from Latin inquilinus ‘temporary resident’, from in- ‘into’ + colere ‘dwell’.
Example sentences
“an inquiline insect”
Petiole (noun) pet-ee-ohl (Botany) the slender stalk by which a leaf is attached to the stem; leafstalk. 1745–55; New Latin petiolus leafstalk, special use of Latin petiolus, scribal variant of…
Preponderant (adj) pree-pon-duh-rant superior in weight, force, influence, numbers, etc.; prevailing. Preponderant was first recorded in 1650–60 and comes from the stem of the Latin word praeponderāns, which is the…
Nebulous (adj) neb-yu-lus Hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused. First recorded in 1375–1425 and comes via late Middle English from the Latin word nebulōsus, meaning “full of mist, foggy, cloudy.” (more…)
Impediment (noun) im-ped-im-ent An obstruction, hindrance or obstacle. / any physical impairment or condition that impedes normal, fluent, or easy speech; a speech disorder. First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English,…
Gamp (noun) gamp (British) (informal) Umbrella. 1860–65; after the umbrella of Mrs. Sarah Gamp in Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit (more…)
Marabout (noun) ma-ra-boot (Islam) a hermit or holy man, especially in N Africa, often wielding political power and credited with supernatural powers./ the tomb or shrine of such a man.…
Farrago (noun) far-ah-go A jumbled mixture of things. 1625–35; Latin: literally, mixed crop of feed grains, equivalent to farr- (stem of far ) emmer + -āgō suffix noting kind or…
Firkin (noun) fer-kin a small wooden vessel or tub for butter, lard, etc. First recorded around 1400–50 and comes from the late Middle English word ferdkyn or firdekyn. (more…)
Collocation (noun) coll-ok-ay-shun the arrangement, especially of words in a sentence. 1595–1605; Latin collocātiōn- (stem of collocātiō ), equivalent to collocāt (more…)