cirrus

English

Etymology

From Latin cirrus (“curl”).

A sky filled with cirrus clouds

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɹəs/
• Rhymes: -ɪɹəs

Noun

cirrus (plural cirri)

1. (botany) A tendril.
2. (zoology) A thin tendril-like appendage.
3. (meteorology) A principal high-level cloud type characterised by white, delicate filaments or wisps, of white (or mostly white) patches, or of narrow bands, found at an altitude of above 7000 metres.
   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, Abacus 2013, p. 15:

     The blue sky is glossy and fat with heat, a few thin cirri sheared to blown strands like hair at the rims.

   • 1952, Ernest Hemingway, The old man and the sea, Harper Perennial classics, 2014, p. 282:

     He looked at the sky and saw the white cumulus built like friendly piles of ice cream and high above where the thin feathers of the cirrus against the high September sky.

Derived terms

• cirral

Translations

tendril

• Bulgarian: ластар m (lastar)
• Catalan: cirrus (ca) m
• Czech: úponek m

• Esperanto: ĉiro (eo)
• Galician: cirro m
• Portuguese: cirro (pt) m

cloud

• Asturian: cirru m
• Bulgarian: перест облак m (perest oblak)
• Catalan: cirrus (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 卷雲, 卷云 (gyun²wan⁴)

  Mandarin: 卷雲 (zh), 卷云 (zh) (juǎnyún)

• Czech: řasa (cs) f
• Dutch: windveer (nl), cirrus (nl), vederwolk
• Esperanto: ciruso
• Finnish: cirruspilvi, cirrus (fi)
• French: cirrus (fr) m
• Galician: cirro m
• Greek: θύσανος (el) m (thýsanos)
• Hindi: पक्षाभ (pakṣābh)
• Hungarian: pehelyfelhő

• Icelandic: klósigar m pl, blikutrefjar f pl, blikufjaðrir f pl, vatnsklær f pl
• Italian: cirro (it) m
• Japanese: 巻雲 (ja) (けんうん, ken'un), すじ雲 (sujigumo)
• Latin: cirrus m, nubes cirra f
• Latvian: spalvu mākonis m
• Macedonian: цирус m (cirus)
• Maori: pūrerehu, iorangi, pūrehurehu
• Navajo: kʼos áłtʼą́ą́ʼí
• Polish: cirrus (pl) m, chmura pierzasta f
• Portuguese: cirro (pt) m
• Russian: пе́ристая (ru) f (péristaja)
• Spanish: cirro (es) m
• Tagalog: ruruking alapaap
• Vietnamese: mây ti

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin cirrus. Doublet of cerro.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.rus/

Noun

cirrus m (plural cirrus)

1. cirrus (cloud)

Further reading

• “cirrus” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “cirrus”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2022
• “cirrus” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “cirrus” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

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Finnish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsirːus/, [ˈs̠irːus̠]
• Syllabification: cir‧rus

Noun

cirrus

1. cirrus (type of cloud)

Declension

Inflection of cirrus (Kotus type 39/vastaus, no gradation)
nominative		cirrus	cirrukset
genitive		cirruksen	cirrusten cirruksien
partitive		cirrusta	cirruksia
illative		cirrukseen	cirruksiin
		singular	plural
nominative		cirrus	cirrukset
accusative	nom.	cirrus	cirrukset
	gen.	cirruksen
genitive		cirruksen	cirrusten cirruksien
partitive		cirrusta	cirruksia
inessive		cirruksessa	cirruksissa
elative		cirruksesta	cirruksista
illative		cirrukseen	cirruksiin
adessive		cirruksella	cirruksilla
ablative		cirrukselta	cirruksilta
allative		cirrukselle	cirruksille
essive		cirruksena	cirruksina
translative		cirrukseksi	cirruksiksi
instructive		—	cirruksin
abessive		cirruksetta	cirruksitta
comitative		—	cirruksineen

Possessive forms of cirrus (type vastaus)
possessor	singular	plural
1st person	cirrukseni	cirruksemme
2nd person	cirruksesi	cirruksenne
3rd person	cirruksensa

Synonyms

• cirruspilvi
• untuvapilvi

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Latin

Etymology

The origin is unknown. There are no definitive cognates in other Indo-European languages. Compare Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkir.rus/, [ˈkɪrːʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃir.rus/, [ˈt͡ʃirːus]

Noun

cirrus m (genitive cirrī); second declension

1. a curl
2. the fringe of clothes
3. the tentacle of an octopus
4. the mane, especially the forelock, of a horse

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cirrus	cirrī
Genitive	cirrī	cirrōrum
Dative	cirrō	cirrīs
Accusative	cirrum	cirrōs
Ablative	cirrō	cirrīs
Vocative	cirre	cirrī

Descendants

• Catalan: cerro
• Galician: cerro
• Italian: cirro
• Portuguese: cerro
• Spanish: cerro

References

• “cirrus”, in Charlton T[homas] Lewis; Charles [Lancaster] Short (1879) […] A New Latin Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.: American Book Company; Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• “cirrus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cirrus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “cirrus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cirrus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

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Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cirrus (“curl”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡sir.rus/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -irrus
• Syllabification: cir‧rus

Noun

cirrus m anim

1. (meteorology) cirrus (a type of cloud)

   Synonym: chmura pierzasta

Declension

Declension of cirrus

	singular	plural
nominative	cirrus	cirrusy
genitive	cirrusa	cirrusów
dative	cirrusowi	cirrusom
accusative	cirrusa	cirrusy
instrumental	cirrusem	cirrusami
locative	cirrusie	cirrusach
vocative	cirrusie	cirrusy

Further reading

• cirrus in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• cirrus in Polish dictionaries at PWN