volsella

English

Noun

volsella (plural volsellae)

1. A male reproductive appendage in some insects.
2. Alternative form of vulsellum
   • 1867, William Braithwaite, James Braithwaite, Edmond Fauriel Trevelyan, The Retrospect of Practical Medicine and Surgery:

     The projecting portion of tumour must be seized with a strong volsella, and dragged and slightly twisted until removed.

Anagrams

• Lovealls

Latin

Alternative forms

• volsilla
• vulsella

Etymology

From vulsus.

Noun

volsella f (genitive volsellae); first declension

1. A pair of tweezers
   • c. 47 CE, Aulus Cornelius Celsus, De Medicina‎^[1], archived from the original on 2022-10-03, section 7.12:

     Protinus autem ubi plus sanguinis [e gingiva] profluit, scire licet, aliquid ex osse fractum esse. Ergo specillo conquirenda est testa, quae recessit, et volsella protrahenda est.

     However, when a lot of blood immediately flows out [of the gum], you can tell that some part of the bone has been broken off. So the fragment that sank in should be found with a probe and pulled out with a pair of tweezers.

   • 96 CE, Martial, Epigrammata, 9.27:

     Cum...
     Nec vivat ullus in tuo pilus crure,
     Purgentque saevae cana labra volsellae...

     When ... no hair lives on your leg, and cruel tweezers cleanse your gray-haired lips [of hair]...

2. A kind of forceps

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	volsella	volsellae
Genitive	volsellae	volsellārum
Dative	volsellae	volsellīs
Accusative	volsellam	volsellās
Ablative	volsellā	volsellīs
Vocative	volsella	volsellae

References

• “volsella”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• volsella in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.