This blog is for everyone who uses words.

The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.



Monday 17 April 2017

Spot the Frippet: something rostrate.

No, this is easy.

I mean, this beetle is rostrate:

Metaxyphloeus germaini dorsalMontage.jpg
Metaxyphloeus germaini

and so is this stone curlew:

File:Eurasian stone curlew.jpg
(don't worry, stone curlews always look anxious)

and so is this pillar:

File:Spb, colonne rostrate 02.JPG
photo by sailko

and this flower:


Heliconia rostrata, photo byCesarious 

and this fossil brachiopod (yes, that's just a sort of shellfish):

Uncitidae - Uncites gryphus.JPG
photo by Hectonichus

and this creature here (and the clue's to what rostrate means is, as they say, in the name):

File:Gould John Duckbilled Platypus 1845-1863.png
illustration by John Gould

Do you know what it is, yet? Yes, that's right: something rostrate is something with a beak.

So: how long will it take you to spot one of those?

Spot the Frippet: something rostrate. This word comes from the Latin rōstrum, beak or ship's prow, from rōdere, which means rather sweetly, to nibble. 



No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are very welcome, but please make them suitable for The Word Den's family audience.