carapace
English

Diagram of a prawn, with the carapace highlighted in red.
Etymology
Borrowed from French carapace (“tortoise shell”), from Portuguese carapaça (“carapace, shell”), of uncertain origin.[1] Compare Catalan carabassa. Possibly related to Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos, “beetle”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈkeɹ.əˌpeɪs/, /ˈkæ.ɹəˌpeɪs/
Noun
carapace (plural carapaces)
- A hard protective covering of bone or chitin, especially one which covers the dorsal portion of an animal.
- in figurative use
- 1928, Edward A. Ross, World Drift, New York; London: The Century Co., page 12:
- So, little by little, youth loosens the hard carapace of confining custom their elders have built over the human heart.
- 2010 January 8, Simon Jenkins, “The proliferation of nuclear panic is politics at its most ghoulish” in The Guardian, §: “Comment & Debate”, page 29, column 4
- This is all a massive failure of science to pierce the carapace of public ignorance.
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Related terms
- carapaced
- carapaceous
- carapacial
Translations
hard protective covering
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French
Etymology
Borrowed from Portuguese carapaça (“carapace, shell”), of uncertain origin.
Further reading
- “carapace” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed from French carapace (“tortoise shell”), from Portuguese carapaça (“carapace, shell”), of uncertain origin.
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