turtle

WOTD - 10 April 2010    

English

Wikipedia

A sea turtle.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈtɜːtəl/, SAMPA: /"t3:t@l/
• (US) enPR: tûrʹtəl, IPA: /ˈtɝtəl/, SAMPA: /"t3`t@l/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)təl

Etymology 1

Modification of French tortue (probably under the influence of turtledove). See tortoise for more.

Noun

turtle (plural turtles)

1. A land or marine reptile having a protective shell (made up of a carapace and a plastron) enclosing its body.
2. (Australian, UK) A sea turtle.
3. (military) An Ancient Roman attack method, where the shields held by the soldiers hide them, not only left, right, front and back, but also from above.
4. (computing) A type of robot having a domed case (and so resembling the reptile), used in education, especially for making line drawings by means of a computer program.
5. (computing) An on-screen cursor that serves the same function as a turtle for drawing.
   • 1997, Brian Harvey, Computer Science Logo Style: Symbolic computing

     Depending on which version of Logo you have, the turtle may look like an actual animal with a head and four legs or — as in Berkeley Logo — it may be represented as a triangle.

6. (printing, historical) The curved plate in which the form is held in a type-revolving cylinder press.

Derived terms

terms derived from turtle in the above senses

African helmeted turtle Afro-American sideneck turtle Alabama red-bellied turtle alligator turtle, alligator-turtle American turtle Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles Arakan forest turtle Australian short-necked turtle Austro-American sideneck turtle awkward turtle bastard turtle big-headed turtle black marsh turtle black turtle bean Blanding's turtle bog turtle box turtle, box-turtle chicken turtle, chicken-turtle common snakeneck turtle cooter turtle diamond-backed turtle dragon turtle eastern long-neck turtle Fitzroy River turtle flatback turtle Florida redbelly turtle Fly River turtle golden coin turtle gopher turtle greaved turtle Greenland turtle

green turtle have a turtle's head hawk-billed turtle, hawksbill sea turtle, hawk's-bill turtle, hawksbill turtle horned turtle land turtle leaf turtle leather turtle leatherback turtle leather-turtle leathery turtle loggerhead turtle, logger-headed turtle lyre turtle Madagascan big-headed turtle map turtle marine turtle marsh turtle mata mata turtle, matamata turtle Mary River turtle mock turtle mock turtle soup mud turtle musk turtle New Guinea snakeneck turtle Olive Ridley turtle painted turtle pancake turtle pig-nosed turtle, pig-nose turtle, pignose turtle pitted-shelled turtle

plateless turtle Plymouth redbelly turtle pond turtle purple turtler red-bellied turtle river turtle roofed turtle sea turtle, sea-turtle side-necked turtle silver stater with a turtle snake-eating turtle snake-necked turtle snapping turtle, snapping-turtle soft-shelled turtle, soft-shell turtle, softshell turtle spiny turtle spotted turtle toad-headed turtle twisted-necked turtle tortoise-shell turtle trunk turtle, trunk-turtle turn the turtle turn turtle turning turtles turtle-back, turtleback turtle bean turtleburger turtle-corral turtle cowrie, turtle cowry turtle-crab turtle-crawl turtle-deck

turtledom turtle-egging turtle excluder device turtle-footed turtle-frolic turtle graphics turtle grass, turtle-grass turtle-head, turtlehead turtle hull turtle-insect turtle-kraal turtle neck, turtle-neck, turtleneck turtle peg, turtle-peg turtle-press turtler turtle racing turtles all the way down turtle shell turtle ship turtle soup turtle stone turtle-shell turtle-soup turtle-stone turtlet turtle trade turtle-twine turtling turtly water turtle western swamp turtle wood turtle

Translations

land or marine reptile with a shell

Afrikaans: skilpad (af) Arabic: سُلَحْفَاة (sulaħfáah) f., سَلاحِف (saláaħif) pl. Armenian: կրիա (hy) (kria) Basque: dortoka Bosnian: kornjača (bs) f. Breton: baot f., baoted pl., baot douar (land turtle), baot vor (sea turtle) Bulgarian: костенурка (bg) (kostenurka) f. Burmese: လိပ် (my) (leik) Catalan: tortuga f. Chamicuro: majpolo Chinese: 烏龜/乌龟 (wūguī); 王八 (wángbā); 鼈 (biē, freshwater turtle. Variants 鱉,鳖, and 龞.) Cree: ᒥᐢᑭᓈᕁ (cr) (miskinâhk) Croatian: kornjača (hr) f. Czech: želva (cs) f. Danish: skildpadde (da) Darkinjung: kutumung Dutch: schildpad (nl) f. Esperanto: testudo (eo) Fijian: vonu Finnish: kilpikonna (fi) French: tortue (fr) f. Galician: tartaruga f., sapoconcho m. Georgian: ზრვის კუ (ka) (zrvis ku) German: Schildkröte (de) f. Greek: νεροχελώνα (el) (nerochelóna) f. Gullah: cootuh Haitian Creole: tòti Hawaiian: honu Hebrew: צב (tsav) m. Hopi: yöngösona Hungarian: teknősbéka (hu), teknős (hu) Indonesian: kura-kura, penyu (sea turtle) Irish: turtar m. Italian: tartaruga (it) f. Japanese: 亀 (かめ, káme), 海亀 (うみがめ, umigáme) Korean: 거북 (keobuk), 바다거북 (padageobuk) Latgalian: brūnisrupucs m. Latin: testudo (la) f.

Latvian: bruņurupucis (lv) m. Lithuanian: vėžlys (lt) m. Luxembourgish: Deckelsmouk (lb) f., Schildkröt (lb) f. Macedonian: желка (mk) (žélka) f. Malay: penyu (ms) Nahuatl: ayotl (nah) Navajo: chʼééh digháhii, tsisteeł Norwegian: Bokmål: skilpadde (no) m. and f. Nynorsk: skjelpadde (nn) f. Pali: kacchapa m. Persian: لاک‌پشت (lâke posht) Polish: żółw (pl) m. Portuguese: tartaruga (pt) f. Rapanui: honu Romanian: broască țestoasă (ro) f. Russian: черепаха (ru) (čerepaχa) f. Scottish Gaelic: crùban-coille (gd) m., sligeanach (gd) m. Serbian: Cyrillic: корњача (sr) f. Roman: kornjača f. Slovak: korytnačka (sk) f. Slovene: želva (sl) f. Spanish: tortuga f., peta f. (Bolivia) Swahili: kobe (sw) Swedish: sköldpadda (sv) Tagalog: pagongpawikan Tamil: ஆமை (Amai) Telugu: తాబేలు (taabaelu) Thai: เต่า (tàò) Turkish: kaplumbağa (tr), tosbağa (tr) Ukrainian: черепаха (uk) (čerepaχa) f. Volapük: (male or female) tortug (vo), (male) hitortug (vo), (female) jitortug (vo), (male or female offspring, young) tortugül (vo), länatortug (vo), melatortug (vo) Welsh: crwban (cy) m. West Frisian: skylpod (fy) Wolof: mbonnat mi (wo)

sea turtle

Darkinjung: kutumung Esperanto: martestudo (eo) Finnish: kilpikonna (fi), merikilpikonna (fi) Navajo: tééh tsisteeł Polish: żółw wodny (pl) m.

Russian: морская черепаха (ru) Swahili: kasa (sw) Swedish: havssköldpadda (sv) c. Volapük: melatortug (vo) Welsh: môr-grwban (cy) m.

Roman attack method

Finnish: kilpikonnamuodostelma (fi)

Russian: черепаха (ru)

computing: type of robot

Finnish: piirustusrobotti (fi)

computing: drawing cursor

Finnish: kursori (fi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Interlingua: tortuca (1, 2)

Verb

turtle (third-person singular simple present turtles, present participle turtling, simple past and past participle turtled)

1. To flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down.
   • 1919, Iowa Highway Commission, Service Bulletin, Issues 15-32‎, page 48

     Were speeding when car turtled […] Auto crashed into curb and turtled.

2. To turn and swim upside down.
   • 2009, Amy Waeschle, Chasing Waves: A Surfer's Tale of Obsessive Wandering‎, page 149

     I turtled my board beneath it, flipped upright, and started paddling again.

3. To hunt turtles, especially in the water.
   • 1973, Bernard Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: The Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, page 153

     Of these, 80 turtled (65%), 26 hunted and turtled (20%), and 18 hunted (15%).

4. (video games) To build up a large defense force and strike only punctually, rather than going for an offensive strategy.

Translations

to flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down

Finnish: kääntyä ympäri (fi) French: capoter (fr), se renverser (fr), faire un tonneau (fr)

Italian: ribaltare (it) Spanish: volcar (es), dar una vuelta de campana (es)

to turn and swim upside down

Finnish: kääntää ympäri (fi)

to hunt turtles

Finnish: metsästää (fi) kilpikonnia (fi)

See also

• chelonian
• terrapin
• tortoise
• Turtle on Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Latin turtur (“turtledove”), of imitative origin.

Noun

turtle (plural turtles)

1. (archaic) A turtle dove.

Derived terms

terms derived from turtle in the above senses

turtle-bird turtle dove, turtle-dove, turtledove

turtleish, turtlish turtleise, turtlise, turtleize, turtlize

Translations

turtle dove — see turtle dove