This blog is for everyone who uses words.

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



Monday 12 August 2019

Spot the Frippet: ocellus.

An ocellus is a simple eye, or something that looks like an eye.

Insects have them:

File:House Fly Eye Closeup.jpg
eyes of a house fly. Photo by Sanjay Achara https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sanjay_ach

...and butterflies sometimes have more than two.

File:Peacock Butterfly (7822792836).jpg
photo of a Peacock butterfly by Tony Hisgett https://www.flickr.com/people/37804979@N00

Peacocks are famous for flouncing about with loads of the things, and so does the Argus pheasant:



illustration by T W Wood from Darwin's The Descent of Man



...as do some leaves and types of fungus.

There. 

I'm beginning to wonder if I've ever been a day without seeing one.

Spot the Frippet: ocellus. This word is Latin for small eye, from oculus, which means eye.




No comments:

Post a Comment

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