pectinate

English edit

WOTD – 14 December 2006

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /ˈpɛktəneɪt/
Audio (US) (file)

Etymology 1 edit

Pectinate antenna of a lappet moth.

Borrowed from Latin pectinātus (“combed”), from pectinō (“I comb”), from pecten (“comb”). First attested in the mid-18th century.^[1]

Adjective edit

pectinate (not comparable)

Resembling a comb.
Synonym: pectinated
1. (anatomy, zoology, botany) Having narrow ridges or projections aligned close together like the teeth of a comb.
  The moth's antennae were pectinate in shape, set with long teeth along one edge only.
2. (mycology) Striate.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

resembling a comb

Bulgarian: гребенчат (grebenčat)
Portuguese: pectinado m
Spanish: pectinado

Verb edit

pectinate (third-person singular simple present pectinates, present participle pectinating, simple past and past participle pectinated)

(transitive, intransitive) To fit together in an alternating manner; to interlock or interdigitate.
- 1646, Thomas Browne, “Compendiouſly of many queſtionable cuſtomes, opinions, pictures, practiſes, and popular obſervations”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 5th book, paragraph 9, page 266:
  To ſet croſſe legg’d, or with our fingers pectinated or ſhut together is accounted bad, and friends will perſwade us from it.