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)

  1. A hard protective covering of bone or chitin, especially one which covers the dorsal portion of an animal.
  2. 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.

Translations

References

  1. carapace” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese carapaça (carapace, shell), of uncertain origin.

Noun

carapace f (plural carapaces)

  1. shell

Further reading


Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French carapace (tortoise shell), from Portuguese carapaça (carapace, shell), of uncertain origin.

Noun

carapace m (plural carapaci)

  1. carapace
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