tentaculum

English

Etymology

From New Latin tentāculum. See the doublet tentacle.

Noun

tentaculum (plural tentacula)

(zoology) A tentacle.
(anatomy) One of the stiff hairs situated around the mouth, or on the face, of many animals, and supposed to be tactile organs.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “tentaculum”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Latin

Etymology

From tentō (“I feel, touch, try”) +‎ -culum, literally "thing for feeling".

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /tenˈtaː.ku.lum/, [t̪ɛn̪ˈt̪äːkʊɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /tenˈta.ku.lum/, [t̪en̪ˈt̪äːkulum]

Noun

tentāculum n (genitive tentāculī); second declension

(New Latin, zoology) a tentacle

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tentāculum	tentācula
Genitive	tentāculī	tentāculōrum
Dative	tentāculō	tentāculīs
Accusative	tentāculum	tentācula
Ablative	tentāculō	tentāculīs
Vocative	tentāculum	tentācula

Descendants

→ English: tentacle
→ French: tentacule
- → Romanian: tentacul
→ Spanish: tentáculo
→ Portuguese: tentáculo
→ Italian: tentacolo
→ German: Tentakel