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

• IPA^(key): /pɹə(ʊ)ˈbɒs(k)ɪs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

proboscis (plural proboscises or proboscides or probosces)

1. (anatomy) An elongated tube from the head or connected to the mouth, of an animal.
   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^[1], 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

• 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)
• 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
• 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.

Case	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