tardigrade

English

WOTD – 13 July 2012

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑɹdɪˌɡɹeɪd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd
• Hyphenation: tar‧di‧grade

Etymology 1

From Latin tardigradus (“slowly stepping”), from tardus (“slow”) + gradior (“step, walk”).

Adjective

tardigrade (comparative more tardigrade, superlative most tardigrade)

1. Sluggish; moving slowly.
   • 1850, Joses Badcock, “Botany; or, Phytology”, in Poems, volume 1, page 67:

     Each tendril ending in a perfect claw, / Obeys the whole routine of Nature's law; / Transforms each sinus to a sylvan shade, / Though p'rhaps its force is rather tardigrade.

   • 1863, George Eliot, Romola:

     He ran on into the piazza, but he quickly heard the tramp of feet behind him, for the other two prisoners had been released, and the soldiers were struggling and fighting their way after them, in such tardigrade fashion as their hoof-shaped shoes would allow—impeded, but not very resolutely attacked, by the people.

   • 2001, Richard S. Conde, “The Metronome”, in Century One, →ISBN, page 92:

     In sorrow, its voice is tardigrade but loud, dragging time at a snail's pace before our eyes.

Derived terms

• tardigradous

Translations

sluggish, moving slowly

• Armenian: դանդաղկոտ (hy) (dandaġkot), դանդաղաշարժ (hy) (dandaġašarž)
• Finnish: hidasliikkeinen, jähmeä (fi)
• Latin: lentus (la)
• Polish: niemrawy (pl), powolny (pl)
• Russian: ме́дленный (ru) (médlennyj)
• Swedish: trög (sv), långsam (sv)

Etymology 2

From translingual Tardigrada.

Noun

tardigrade (plural tardigrades)

1. (zoology) A member of the animal phylum Tardigrada.

   Synonym: water bear

2. A sloth, a neotropical mammal of suborder Folivora (syn. Tardigrada).

Hyponyms

• macrobiotid

Translations

water bear — see water bear

References

• “tardigrade”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “tardigrade”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /taʁ.di.ɡʁad/

• Audio (Switzerland):

  (file)

Noun

tardigrade m (plural tardigrades)

1. tardigrade; water bear

Further reading

• “tardigrade”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Adjective

tardigrade f pl

1. feminine plural of tardigrado

Anagrams

• degradarti