autotomy

English

Etymology

From auto- +‎ -tomy, after German Autotomie or French autotomie.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɔːˈtɒtəmi/

Noun

autotomy (countable and uncountable, plural autotomies)

1. (chiefly zoology) The spontaneous removal of a limb, tail etc, especially by some invertebrates as a self-defense mechanism.
   • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:

     She has dropped it by autotomy, like the tail or claw of a fleeing lizard, lobster, or starfish.

Hyponyms

• tail-shedding

Translations

invertebrate self-defense mechanism

• Basque: autotomia (eu)
• Belarusian: аўтатамія f (aŭtatamija)
• Bulgarian: автотомия f (avtotomija)
• Catalan: autotomia f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自割 (zigē)

• Czech: autotomie f
• Danish: autotomi c
• Estonian: autotoomia
• Finnish: autotomia
• French: autotomie (fr)
• Galician: autotomía (gl) f
• German: Autotomie (de) f
• Hungarian: autotómia
• Ido: autotomio (io)
• Italian: autotomia f
• Japanese: 自切 (jisetsu)
• Kazakh: aвтотомия (avtotomiä)
• Norwegian: autotomi m
• Polish: autotomia (pl) f
• Portuguese: autotomia f
• Russian: автотоми́я (ru) f (avtotomíja), аутотоми́я (ru) f (autotomíja)
• Slovak: autotómia f
• Spanish: autotomía (es) f
• Swedish: autotomi (sv) c
• Tajik: aвтотомия (avtotomiya)
• Tamil: தற்பிரிவு (taṟpirivu)
• Turkish: ototomi
• Ukrainian: автотомі́я f (avtotomíja)
• Uzbek: avtotomiya