proboscis

English

Etymology

From Latin proboscis, from Ancient Greek προβοσκίς (proboskís, “elephant's trunk”) literally "means for taking food," from προ- (pro-, “before”) +‎ βόσκω (bóskō, “to nourish, feed”), from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷeh₃- from which also comes βοτάνη (botánē, “grass, fodder”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɹə(ʊ)ˈbɒs(k)ɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /pɹoʊˈbɑs(k)ɪs/
• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /pɹoʊˈbɒs(k)ɪs/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /pɹəʉˈbɔs(k)ɪs/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /pɹɐʉˈbɒs(k)əs/, [pɹɐʉˈbɔ̟s(k)əs]

Noun

proboscis (plural proboscises or proboscides or probosces)

1. (anatomy) An elongated tube from the head or connected to the mouth, of an animal.
   • 2025 June 25, Elle Hunt, “From Chimpanzini Bananini to Ballerina Cappuccina: how gen alpha went wild for Italian brain rot animals”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief of the site Know Your Meme, namechecks Brr Brr Patapim, “a proboscis monkey that is also a tree”, as one who made it to YouTube.

   1. (entomology, malacology) The tubular feeding and sucking organ of certain invertebrates like insects, worms and molluscs.
      • 2012, Brian Wiegmann, The Evolutionary Biology of Flies‎^[2], page 225:

        Unlike the proboscides of Lower brachyceran lineages, which are continuous with the head capsule and tend to dangle (Matsuda 1965), the proboscides of most cyclorrhaphan species are suspended by a membranous region and divided into three functional parts: the basiproboscis (rostrum), medioproboscis (haustellum), and distiproboscis (labellum), each of which is defined by internal muscles but also shares muscles with the other regions (Graham-Smith 1930; Lall and Davies 1971).

   2. The trunk of an elephant.
2. (informal, mildly humorous) A large or lengthy human nose.

Usage notes

• The learned plural proboscides is prevalent in biological literature. Otherwise the plural proboscises tends to pair with the pronunciation in /-skɪs/, while the plural probosces tends to pair with the pronunciation in /-sɪs/.

Derived terms

• probosciform
• proboscislike
• proboscis monkey
• proboscis worm

Translations

elongated tube

• Arabic: خُرْطُوم m (ḵurṭūm)
• Armenian: կնճիթ (hy) (knčitʻ)
• Bulgarian: хобот (bg) m (hobot)
• Catalan: probòscide f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 長鼻 / 长鼻 (zh) (chángbí), 吻 (zh) (wěn), 象鼻 (zh) (xiàngbí) (of an elephant)

• Czech: sosák (cs) m
• Dutch: slurf (nl)
• Esperanto: rostro
• Finnish: imukärsä (fi), kärsä (fi) (of an elephant)
• French: trompe (fr) f, proboscide (fr) f
• German: Rüssel (de) m
• Hebrew: חֵדֶק (he) m (ḥédeq)
• Hungarian: (of mammals) ormány (hu), (of insects) pödörnyelv
• Ido: rostro (io)
• Irish: próboscas m
• Italian: proboscide (it) f
• Japanese: 吻 (ja) (ふん, fun)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: snabel m

  Nynorsk: snabel m

• Occitan: proboscide f
• Ottoman Turkish: خرطوم (hortum)
• Polish: ssawka f
• Portuguese: probóscide (pt) f, probóscida f
• Romanian: proboscidă (ro) f
• Russian: хобото́к (ru) m (xobotók), хо́бот (ru) m (xóbot) (of an elephant)
• Slovak: cuciak m
• Spanish: probóscide (es) f
• Swedish: snabel (sv) c
• Ukrainian: хобото́к m (xobotók)
• Volapük: probod (vo), sugaprobod
• Welsh: trwnc (cy) m (of elephant), sugnydd m (of insects)

slang: a nose — see schnozzle

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek προβοσκίς (proboskís).

Noun

proboscis f (genitive proboscidis); third declension

1. proboscis
2. snout
3. trunk of an elephant

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	proboscis	proboscidēs
genitive	proboscidis	proboscidum
dative	proboscidī	proboscidibus
accusative	proboscidem	proboscidēs
ablative	proboscide	proboscidibus
vocative	proboscis	proboscidēs

Descendants

• → English: proboscis
• Italian: proboscide
• Portuguese: probóscide
• Spanish: probóscide