Translingual

Proper noun

Termes m

1. A taxonomic genus within the family Termitidae.

Usage notes

• Termites are not well described. This genus name has been used to include a large number of termites, not necessarily properly associated with the genus as described by Linnaeus.

Hypernyms

• (genus): Insecta - class; Dicondylia - clade; Pterygota - subclass; Metapterygota - clade; Neoptera - infraclass; Polyneoptera - supercohort; Dictyoptera - cohort; Isoptera - order; Termitidae - family; Termitinae - subfamily

Derived terms

Descendants

• English: termes

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈter.mes/, [ˈtɛr.mɛs]

Proper noun

Termes n ‎(indeclinable)

1. Lerma (a town in Hispania Tarraconensis)
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Florus to this entry?)
   • AD 77–79, Gaius Plinius Secundus (author), Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff (editor), Naturalis Historia (1906), book III, chapter xvii:

     arevacis nomen dedit fluvius areva. horum vi oppida, secontia et vxama, quae nomina crebro aliis in locis usurpantur, praeterea segovia et nova augusta, termes ipsaque clunia, celtiberiae finis.

     The river Areva gives its name to the Arevaci; of whom there are six towns, Segontia and Uxama, names which are frequently given to other places, as also Segovia and Nova Augusta, Termes, and Clunia itself, the frontier of Celtiberia. ― translation from: John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, The Natural History (1855), book III: “An Account of Countries, Nations, Seas, Towns, Havens, Mountains, Rivers, Distances, and Peoples Who Now Exist or Formerly Existed”, chapter iv (iii): ‘Of Nearer Spain’

Derived terms

• Termestīnī
• Termestīnus

Descendants

• French: Termès

References

• Termes³ in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “Termes²”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈter.meːs/, [ˈtɛr.meːs]

Proper noun

Termēs f ‎(genitive Termētis); third declension

1. a town in Ionia
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Pliny the Elder to this entry?)

Declension

Third declension, with locative.

References

• Termes³ in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “Termēs³”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.

Anagrams

• termes, tremes

English

Noun

termes ‎(plural termites)

1. A termite.
   • 1781, Henry Smeathman in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society LXXI, page 160:

     These turret nests, built by two different species of Termites.

   • 1800, The Asiatic Annual Register, page 5/2:

     The termes, or what is called the white ant, infests this island.

   • 1834, Thomas Pringle, African Sketches, chapter viii, page 287:

     The termes of South Africa is not the destructive species.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:termes.

Derived terms

• termite

Translations

References

• “‖Termes” on page 203/2 of § 2 (T–Th, ed. James Augustus Henry Murray) of part ii (Su–Th) of volume IX (Si–Th, 1919) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1st ed.)
• “‖termes” in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed., 1989)

Catalan

Noun

termes

1. plural of terme

French

Noun

termes m

1. plural of terme

Anagrams

• mestre, mètres, remets

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈter.mes/, [ˈtɛr.mɛs]

Etymology 1

Traditionally derived from terō ‎(“I rub away”), but unknown.

Noun

termes m ‎(genitive termitis); third declension

1. a branch or bough of a tree, especially one severed thence
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Horace to this entry?)
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Grattius to this entry?)
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Columella to this entry?)
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Sextus Pompeius Festus to this entry?)
   • ante AD 180, Aulus Gellius (author), John Carew Rolfe (editor and translator), Noctes Atticae in The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, with an English Translation (1927), book II, chapter xxvi, §§ 9–10:

     Nam ‘poeniceus,’ quem tu Graece φοίνικα dixisti, noster est et ‘rutilus’ et ‘spadix,’ poenicei συνώνυμος, qui factus e Graeco noster est, exuberantiam splendoremque significant ruboris, quales sunt fructus palmae arboris non admodum sole incocti, unde spadici et poeniceo nomen est; enim Dorice vocant avulsum e palma termitem cum fructu.

     For poeniceus, which you call φοῖνιξ in Greek, belongs to our language, and rutilus and spadix, a synonym of poeniceus which is taken over into Latin from the Greek, indicate a rich, gleaming shade of red like that of the fruit of the palm-tree when it is not fully ripened by the sun. And from this spadix and poeniceus get their name; for spadix in Doric is applied to a branch torn from a palm-tree along with its fruit. ― translation from the same source

   • ibidem, book III, chapter ix, § 9:

     Quem colorem nos, sicuti dixi, poeniceum dicimus, Graeci partim φοίνικα, alii σπάδικα appellant, quoniam palmae termes ex arbore cum fructu avulsus “spadix” dicitur.

     This colour, as I have said, we call poeniceus; the Greeks sometimes name it φοῖνιξ, at others σπάδιξ, since the branch of the palm (φοῖνιξ), torn from the tree with its fruit, is called spadix. ― translation from the same source

Declension

Third declension.

References

• termĕs¹ in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “termĕs¹”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette, page 1,559/2.
• “termes” on page 1,926/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)

Etymology 2

See tarmes ‎(“woodworm”).

Noun

termes m ‎(genitive termitis); third declension

1. (Late Latin) Alternative spelling of tarmes
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Maurus Servius Honoratus to this entry?)
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Isidore of Seville to this entry?)

Declension

Third declension.

Descendants

• Translingual: Termes (taxonomic name)
  • English: termes
• French: termite
• German: Termite

References

• termes² in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• termes in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “termĕs⁴”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette, page 1,559/2.
• termes in William Smith., editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• termes in Richard Stillwell et al., editor (1976) The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press

Anagrams

• Termes, tremes