testudo

See also: Testudo

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin testūdō (“tortoise, turtle, lyre, type of military shelter”).

Noun

testudo (plural testudos or testudoes or testudines)

1. (Ancient Rome, military, historical) A shelter formed by a body of troops holding their shields or targets close together over their heads.

   Synonym: sheltron

2. A shelter of similar shape for miners, etc.
3. (anatomy) The fornix.
4. (music) A kind of lyre; so called in allusion to the lyre of Mercury, fabled to have been made of the shell of a tortoise.
5. (pathology) An encysted tumour.

Translations

shelter formed by a body of troops holding their shields or targets close together over their heads

• Finnish: kilpikonnamuodostelma
• Russian: черепа́ха (ru) f (čerepáxa)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “testudo”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• duettos

Esperanto

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin testūdō (“tortoise”).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): [tesˈtudo]
• Rhymes: -udo
• Hyphenation: tes‧tu‧do

Noun

testudo (accusative singular testudon, plural testudoj, accusative plural testudojn)

1. tortoise
2. turtle

   Synonym: kelonio

Derived terms

• martestudo (“sea turtle”)
• testudaĵo, testudŝelo (“tortoise shell”)

 

Latin

Etymology

From testa (“fragment of earthenware; shell or covering”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /tesˈtuː.doː/, [t̪ɛs̠ˈt̪uːd̪oː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /tesˈtu.do/, [t̪esˈt̪uːd̪o]

Noun

testūdō f (genitive testūdinis); third declension

1. tortoise, turtle
2. tortoise-shell
3. (by extension) lyre, lute
4. (by extension, military) covering, shed, shelter
5. (by extension, in buildings) arch, vault
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.505-506:

     Tum foribus dīvae, mediā testūdine templī,
     saepta armīs, soliōque altē subnīxa resēdit.

     Then, [facing the] doorway of the goddess [Juno], [there] in the middle beneath the vault of the temple, surrounded by armed guards, and supported by the lofty throne, [Dido] remained seated.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	testūdō	testūdinēs
Genitive	testūdinis	testūdinum
Dative	testūdinī	testūdinibus
Accusative	testūdinem	testūdinēs
Ablative	testūdine	testūdinibus
Vocative	testūdō	testūdinēs

Derived terms

• testūdineātus
• testūdineus

Related terms

• testa
• testāceus
• testātim
• testeus
• testū
• testuātium
• testula

Descendants

• Italian: testuggine
• Neapolitan: stuscene
• → English: testudo
• → Esperanto: testudo
• → French: testudo
• → Spanish: testudo

References

• “testudo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “testudo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• testudo 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)
• testudo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to advance to the walls protected by a covering of shields: testudine facta moenia subire (B. G. 2. 6)
    
• “testudo”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• testudo in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “testudo”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin