Tortoise - Wiktionary

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English tortuse, tortuce, tortuge, from Medieval Latin tortuca, of uncertain origin. May be from Late Latin tartarūcha, from tartarūchus, from Ancient Greek ταρταροῦχος (tartaroûkhos, “holder of Tartaros, Tartarus, the land of the dead in ancient stories”), because it used to be thought that tortoises and turtles came from the underworld and they were commonly paired with such infernal beasts; see Τάρταρος (Tártaros). Or, from Latin tortus (“twisted”). The French-looking Modern English spelling tortoise may be influenced by porpoise. Displaced native Old English byrdling.

Pronunciation

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• (General American) IPA(key): /ˈtɔɹ.təs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈtɔː.təs/
  • (UK, also) IPA(key): /ˈtɔːˌtɔɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)təs

Noun

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tortoise (plural tortoises)

1. Any of various land-dwelling reptiles, of the family Testudinidae (chiefly Canada, US) or the order Testudines (chiefly UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, India), whose body is enclosed in a shell (carapace plus plastron). The animal can withdraw its head and four legs partially into the shell, providing some protection from predators. Synonym: (obsolete) shellpad
   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 235:The tortoise, with its characteristic protrusion of the head and neck, was a symbol sacred to Venus. It represented the procreative principle.
2. Synonym of cat (sense 11, a wheeled shelter)

Usage notes

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Differences exist in usage of the common terms turtle, tortoise, and terrapin, depending on the variety of English being used. In American usage, turtle is often a general term; tortoise is used only in reference to terrestrial turtles or, more narrowly, only those members of Testudinidae, the family of modern land tortoises; and terrapin may refer to turtles that are small and live in fresh and brackish water.

British and Commonwealth usage, by contrast, tends not to use turtle as a generic term for all members of the order but instead as a synonym for sea turtle specifically, and also applies the term tortoises broadly to all land-dwelling members of the order Testudines, regardless of whether they are actually members of the family Testudinidae.

Land tortoises are not native to Australia, yet traditionally freshwater turtles have been called tortoises in Australia.

Derived terms

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• African spurred tortoise
• Aldabra giant tortoise
• angonoka tortoise
• Bolson tortoise
• boofhead tortoise
• Burmese star tortoise
• desert tortoise
• elephantine tortoise
• Galapagos giant tortoise
• Galápagos giant tortoise
• Galápagos tortoise
• Galapagos tortoise
• geometric tortoise
• giant tortoise
• golden tortoise beetle
• gopher tortoise
• Hermann's tortoise
• hinge-back tortoise
• hinged-back tortoise
• hinged tortoise
• Horsfield's tortoise
• Indian star tortoise
• leopard tortoise
• Madagascar tortoise
• pancake tortoise
• ploughshare tortoise
• radiated tortoise
• red-footed tortoise
• red tortoise cake
• Santa Fe Island tortoise
• sculptured tortoise
• sea tortoise
• soft tortoise
• tortoise beetle
• tortoise core
• tortoise-like, tortoiselike
• tortoise-shell bamboo
• tortoise shell bracket
• tortoise shell, tortoise-shell

Translations

[edit] land-dwelling reptile

Afrikaans: (tortoise or turtle) skilpad (af) Akan: akyekyedeɛ Akkadian: 𒃻𒅮𒈾 (šeleppû) Albanian: (tortoise or turtle) breshkë (sq) f Arabic: (tortoise or turtle) سُلَحْفَاة (ar) f (sulaḥfāh) Egyptian Arabic: سُلْحِفة f (sulḥefa) Hijazi Arabic: سلحفة f (sulḥafa) North Levantine Arabic: زِلْحفِة f (zílḥefi) (Lebanon) South Levantine Arabic: سلحفة f (sulaḥfá), سلحفة f (sulḥufá) (Gaza), كركعة f (kurkaʕa) (Ramallah, Amman) Aramaic: סלופּי (salūpā) Armenian: կրիա (hy) (kria) Aromanian: broascã f, broascã tsãstoasã f Asturian: tortuga (ast) f Atayal: ksipa Azerbaijani: (tortoise or turtle) tısbağa (az) Bajau: West Coast Bajau: kekuro Bashkir: ташбаҡа (taşbaqa), гөбөргәйел (göbörgəyel) Belarusian: (tortoise or turtle) чарапа́ха f (čarapáxa) Bengali: (tortoise or turtle) কাছিম (bn) (kachim) Bidayuh: Bau Bidayuh: diya Breton: baot (br) f, baoted (br) pl, baot douar Bulgarian: (tortoise or turtle) костену́рка (bg) f (kostenúrka) Burmese: (tortoise or turtle) လိပ် (my) (lip) Catalan: tortuga (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: (tortoise or turtle) 龜 / 龟 (zh) (guī), 烏龜 / 乌龟 (zh) (wūguī), 草龜 / 草龟 (cǎoguī), 陸龜 / 陆龟 (zh) (lùguī) Cornish: kronek ervys m, melhwioges f, kroban m Czech: želva (cs) Danish: skildpadde (da) c Dhivehi: ކަހަނބު (kahaᵐbu) Dusun: Central Dusun: buu Dutch: schildpad (nl) f Esperanto: testudo (eo) Estonian: (tortoise or turtle) kilpkonn (et) Finnish: (tortoise or turtle) kilpikonna (fi), maakilpikonna (tortoise, Testudinidae) French: (tortoise or turtle) tortue (fr) f Old French: wecle f Frisian: West Frisian: skyldpod f Galician: tartaruga (gl) f, sapoconcho m Georgian: კუ (ka) (ḳu) German: (tortoise or turtle) Schildkröte (de) f, Landschildkröte (de) f Greek: (tortoise or turtle) χελώνα (el) f (chelóna) Ancient Greek: (tortoise or turtle) κλεμμύς f (klemmús), χελώνη f (khelṓnē) Greenlandic: saaniluk Hebrew: (tortoise or turtle) צָב (he) m (tzav), שַׁלְחוּפָה (šalḥūp̄ā) Hindi: कछुआ (hi) m (kachuā) Hungarian: teknősbéka (hu), teknős (hu) Icelandic: landskjaldbaka f, skjaldbaka (is) f (tortoise or turtle) Ido: tortugo (io) Igbo: mbeku Indonesian: kura-kura (id), penyu (id) Ingrian: cerepaha Irish: toirtís f Italian: testuggine (it) f, (tortoise or turtle) tartaruga (it) f Japanese: (tortoise or turtle) 亀 (ja) (かめ, kame), カメ (ja) (kame), 陸亀 (ja) (りくがめ, rikugame) Kannada: ಆಮೆ (kn) (āme), ಕೂರ್ಮ (kn) (kūrma) Kashmiri: کٔچھوٕ (kạchvụ) Kazakh: (tortoise or turtle) тасбақа (tasbaqa) Khmer: អណ្ដើក (km) (ʼɑndaək) (tortoise or turtle) Kimaragang: landang Korean: (tortoise or turtle) 거북 (ko) (geobuk), 거북이 (ko) (geobugi), 땅거북 (ttanggeobuk) Kui (India): (tortoise or turtle) ସେମ୍ବି (sembi) Kuvi: (tortoise or turtle) ତାମ୍ବେଲି (tambeli) Kyrgyz: (tortoise or turtle) ташбака (ky) (taşbaka) Lao: (tortoise or turtle) ເຕົ່າ (lo) (tao) Latin: (tortoise or turtle) testūdō (la) m Latvian: (tortoise or turtle) bruņurupucis (lv) m Lithuanian: (tortoise or turtle) vėžlys (lt) m Luxembourgish: Landdeckelsmouk f Macedonian: (tortoise or turtle) желка (mk) f (želka) Malay: kura-kura (ms) Malayalam: ആമ (ml) (āma) Maltese: fekruna f, fkieren pl Manx: shligganagh m Māori: honuwhenua Marathi: कासव m (kāsav) Melanau: Central Melanau: kejaa Mi'kmaq: migjigj anim Mongolian: яст мэлхий (jast melxii) (tortoise or turtle) Murut: Tagal Murut: buu, babag Nahuatl: āyotl Navajo: chʼééh digháhii Norman: tortue f Norwegian: Bokmål: skilpadde (no) m or f, landskilpadde m or f Nynorsk: skjelpadde f, landskjelpadde f Occitan: tartuga (oc) f Old Church Slavonic: Cyrillic: желꙑ f (žely) Old East Slavic: желꙑ f (žely) Old English: (tortoise or turtle) byrdling m, landbyrdling m Pali: kacchapa m Pannonian Rusyn: коритнявка f (koritnjavka) Pashto: کيشپ (ps) m (kišáp) (tortoise or turtle) Persian: (tortoise or turtle) لاک‌پشت (fa) (lâk-pošt), باخه (fa) (bâxe) Plautdietsch: (tortoise or turtle) Schiltkjrät f Polish: (tortoise or turtle) żółw (pl) m anim, żółw lądowy (pl) m anim Portuguese: (tortoise or turtle) tartaruga (pt) f, jabuti (pt) m, cágado (pt) Romanian: țestoasă f, broască țestoasă f Russian: (tortoise or turtle) черепа́ха (ru) f (čerepáxa), желвь (ru) f (želvʹ) (obsolete or special) Sanskrit: कच्छप (sa) m (kacchapa), कमठ (sa) m (kamaṭha) Scottish Gaelic: crùban-coille m, sligeanach m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: (tortoise or turtle) корњача f Latin: (tortoise or turtle) kornjača (sh) f Sicilian: scurzària Slovak: (tortoise or turtle) korytnačka (sk) f Slovene: (tortoise or turtle) želva (sl) f, kopenska želva f Somali: diindiin Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: nopawa f (tortoise or turtle), žołw f (tortoise or turtle) Upper Sorbian: nopawa f (tortoise or turtle), želwja f (tortoise or turtle) Spanish: tortuga (es) f (tortoise or turtle) , tortuga terrestre f, morrocoy (es) m, galápago (es) m, morrocota (es) f (Colombia), morrocoyo (es) m, tequeteque (es) m Sranan Tongo: sekrepatu Swahili: kobe (sw) Swedish: sköldpadda (sv), landsköldpadda c Tagalog: pagong Tajik: (tortoise or turtle) сангпушт (tg) (sangpušt) Tamil: ஓடன் (ta) (ōṭaṉ), ஆமை (ta) (āmai) Tarantino: celóne Telugu: (tortoise or turtle) తాబేలు (te) (tābēlu) Thai: (tortoise or turtle) เต่า (th) (dtào) Tibetan: རུས་སྦལ (rus sbal) (tortoise or turtle) Tocharian B: (tortoise or turtle) kaccāp Tswana: khudu class 9/10 Tumbuka: fulu Turkish: kaplumbağa (tr), tosbağa (tr) Ottoman Turkish: كشف (keşef) Turkmen: (tortoise or turtle) pyşbaga Ukrainian: (tortoise or turtle) черепа́ха f (čerepáxa) Urdu: کچھوا m (kachuvā) (tortoise or turtle) Uyghur: تاشپاقا (tashpaqa) Cyrillic: ташпақа (tashpaqa) Uzbek: (tortoise or turtle) toshbaqa (uz) Vietnamese: (tortoise or turtle) rùa (vi) Volapük: tortug Welsh: (tortoise or turtle) crwban (cy) m Woiwurrung: bundaban Yiddish: שילדקרויט (shildkroyt), טשערעפּאַכע f (tsherepakhe) Zapotec: Isthmus Zapotec: bigu Zazaki: kesa (diq)

See also

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• terrapin
• turtle

Further reading

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• tortoise on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

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• rootiest