vibrissa

English

Etymology

Latin vibrissae

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɪˈbɹɪsə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

vibrissa (plural vibrissae)

1. Any of the tactile whiskers on the nose of an animal such as a cat.
   • 1881, St George Jackson Mivart, The Cat, London: Murray, page 14:

     There are also long hairs inside each ear and sometimes on its tip, and about a dozen very long and strong hairs—the whiskers or vibrissæ— are placed on each upper lip.

2. Any similar feather near the mouth of some birds.
3. (anatomy, in the plural) The thick hairs found inside the nostrils of humans and other mammals.
   • 2012, David W. Kennedy, Peter H. Hwang, editors, Rhinology: Diseases of the Nose, Sinuses, and Skull Base‎^[1], Thieme, →ISBN:

     The vibrissae are coarse hairs whose follicles are located just within the nasal meatus. […] Vibrissae are present in most mammals, but their innervation and role in sensory function appears to be less pronounced in humans.

Derived terms

• vibrissal

Further reading

• whiskers on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Italian

Etymology

From Latin vībrissae.

Noun

vibrissa f (plural vibrisse)

1. vibrissa
2. (in the plural) a cat's whiskers

Further reading

• vibrissa in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• vibrassi