amplection

English

Alternative forms

• amplexion

Etymology

From Latin amplect- (perfect active participial stem of amplector "surround; embrace") +‎ -ion.

Noun

amplection (plural amplections)

1. (archaic, rare) An embrace.
   • 1474, William Caxton, edited by Jenny Adams, The Game and Playe of the Chesse‎^[1], Medieval Institute Publications, published 2009:

     And she shold sitte on the lift side of the kyng, for the amplexions and enbrasynges of her husbond, like as it is sayd in Scripture in the Canticles: “Her lifte arme shal be under my heed, and her right arme shal beclyppe and enbrace me."

   • a. 1636, Thomas Westcote, A view of Devonshire in MDCXXX, published 1845, page 310:

     Here let us cross the river Taw to Instow, on the left hand, which some call Yonestow, stands as a witness to the marriage of Taw and Torridge, which with their close amplections have demi-insulated this parish.

   • 1665, Robert Sprackling, Medela ignorantiae, page 81:

     Yet such are the Authors whom M.N. followeth and adoreth, witness his wise amplexion of Helmont's Archoeus […] .

   • 1927, Edward Powys Mathers, transl., The lessons of a bawd, translation of the Kuṭṭanīmata of Dāmodaragupta, page 70:

     The amplection of the ruddy goose, the swan’s accolade, mongoose embrace, and the interlacing of pigeons .... she has all these gracious gestures at command.

2. (biology, dated, uncommon) A form of pseudocopulation, found chiefly in amphibians and horseshoe crabs, in which a male grasps a female with his front legs; amplexus.
   • 1927, Tracy Storer, A Synopsis of the Amphibia of California, University Of California Press, page 177:

     The mating amplexion in this species is axillary, as described for other species of the Bufonidae.

   • 1961, J Laurens Barnard, “Amphipoda”, in Peter Gray, editor, The Encyclopedia of the Biological Sciences, Reinhold Pub. Corp, page 28:

     The first two pairs of legs are chelate or sub- chelate, better developed in males and useful for prehension primarily in copulatory amplexion.

   • 1988, C. Lavett Smith, editor, Fisheries Research in the Hudson River, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 262:

     The most commonly observed amplection in the laboratory is one in which the left second gnathopod is reversed and hooked under the posterior portion of the fifth peraeon segment of the female.

Related terms

• amplect
• amplexus