plastron
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From French plastron, from Italian piastrone, augmentive of piastra (“breastplate”), from Latin emplastrum (“plaster”), from Ancient Greek εμπλαστρον, from εμπλαστος (“daubed, plastered”), from εμπλασσειν (“to mould, form”).
[edit] Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈplæstrən/
[edit] Noun
plastron (plural plastrons)
- The nearly flat part of the shell structure of a tortoise or other animal, similar in composition to the carapace
- (fencing) A half-jacket worn under the jacket for padding or for safety.
- An ornamental front panel on a woman's bodice.
- 1942, I bought here a wedding dress perhaps twenty or thirty years old [...] a sequin plastron to be worn over the womb as a feminine equivalent to a cod-piece, and a gauze veil embroidered in purple and gold. — Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (Canongate 2006, p. 784)
- A film of air trapped by specialized hairs against the body of an aquatic insect, and which acts as an external gill.
- The plastron of a diving beetle is not directly a source of oxygen, but acts as a gill, acquiring oxygen from the surrounding water.
[edit] Translations
[edit] Esperanto
[edit] Noun
plastron
- accusative of plastro
[edit] French
[edit] Noun
plastron m. (plural plastrons)
- breastplate (piece of armour)
- (fencing) plastron
- chest pad; chest protection; chestguard
- (zoology) plastron (part of a turtle's shell)
- shirt front; the front of a shirt
- plastron (ornamental front part of a bodice)
- (zoology) breast (front part of certain birds)
