armadillo

English

Nine-banded armadillo

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish armadillo, diminutive of armado (“armored”), in reference to its protective plates.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɑɹməˈdɪloʊ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɑːməˈdɪləʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪləʊ
• Hyphenation: ar‧ma‧dil‧lo

Noun

armadillo (plural armadillos or armadilloes)

1. Any of the burrowing mammals covered with bony, jointed, protective plates, order Cingulata, found in the Americas, especially in South America.
   • 2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:

     The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters …. But the priciest items in the market aren't the armadillo steaks or even the bluefin tuna.

Synonyms

• quirquincho (archaic)

Derived terms

• (order Cingulata): Andean hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus nationi), beautiful armadillo (†Dasypus bellus), big hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus villosus), Chacoan naked-tailed armadillo (Cabassous chacoensis), dwarf armadillo (Zaedyus pichiy), giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus), great long-nosed armadillo (Dasypus kappleri), greater fairy armadillo, greater naked-tailed armadillo, hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus spp.), hairy long-nosed armadillo (Dasypus pilosus), horned armadillo (†Peltephilus), Llanos long-nosed armadillo, long-nosed armadillo (Dasypus spp.), naked-tailed armadillo (Cabassous spp.), nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), northern horned armadillo, northern three-banded armadillo, pink fairy armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus), pygmy armadillo (Zaedyus pichiy), screaming hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus vellerosus), seven-banded armadillo (Dasypus septemcinctus), six-banded armadillo (Euphractus sexcinctus), southern long-nosed armadillo, southern naked-tailed armadillo (Dasypus hybridus), southern three-banded armadillo, Texas armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes matacus or Tolypeutes tricinctus), six-banded armadillo (Euphractus sexcinctus)
• mule armadillo

• armadillo ant
• armadillo bug (in order Oniscidea)
• armadillo egg

Related terms

• armor

Translations

burrowing mammal covered with bony, jointed, protective plates

• Achi: ib’ooy
• Afrikaans: armadil, gordeldier (af)
• Arabic: مُدَرَّع m (mudarraʕ)
• Armenian: զրահակիր (hy) (zrahakir)
• Asturian: armadillu (ast) m
• Belarusian: браняно́сец m (branjanósjec)
• Breton: tatou m
• Bulgarian: бронено́сец (bg) m (bronenósec)
• Catalan: armadillo (ca) m
• Chamicuro: memili
• Cherokee: ᎤᏯᏍᎦᎳ (uyasgala), ᎤᏤᏣᏍᏗ ᎤᏯᏍᎦᏟ (utsetsasdi uyasgatli)
• Chickasaw: hattak illapa'
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 犰狳 (zh) (qiúyú)

• Czech: pásovec (cs) m
• Danish: bæltedyr (da) n
• Dutch: gordeldier (nl) n, armadillo (nl) m, schildvarken n (Suriname), kapasie m (Suriname, rare)
• Esperanto: dazipo
• Estonian: vöölane (et), vööloom
• Finnish: vyötiäinen (fi)
• French: tatou (fr) m
• Galician: armadillo m
• German: Gürteltier (de) n, Armadill m (rare or scientific)
• Greek: αρμαντίλλο n pl (armantíllo)
• Guerrero Amuzgo: kíchio'
• Hebrew: אַרְמָדִיל (he) m (armadíl)
• Hindi: आर्माडिलो (ārmāḍilo)
• Hungarian: tatu (hu), övesállat, armadilló
• Hunsrik: Tattu m
• Icelandic: beltisdýr n
• Ido: armadilo (io)
• Indonesian: trenggiling (id), armadilo
• Irish: armadailín m
• Isthmus Zapotec: ngupi
• Italian: armadillo (it) m
• Japanese: アルマジロ (ja) (arumajiro)
• Kari'na: kapasi
• Kazakh: сауытты аң (sauytty añ), кіреукей (kıreukei)
• Korean: 아르마딜로 (ko) (areumadillo)
• Latvian: bruņnesis m
• Lithuanian: šarvuotis m
• Lokono: andadike, jesi, jesere
• Macedonian: оклопник m (oklopnik)
• Malay: armadillo
• Maléku Jaíka: lenhífa
• Manx: armadillo m
• Nahuatl:

  Central Nahuatl: ayotochtli

  Classical Nahuatl: ayotochtli

  Orizaba Nahuatl: ayotochin

• Navajo: kááʼtsʼiní
• Nheengatu: tatú
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: beltedyr n

• Old Tupi: tatu
• Paumarí: tato f
• Persian: آرمادیلو (fa) (ârmâdilo)
• Polish: pancernik (pl) m
• Portuguese: tatu (pt) m
• Q'eqchi: ib'oy
• Quechua:

  Cusco Quechua: khirkinchu, khirki

  Classical Quechua: quiriquincho

• Romanian: tatu (ro) m
• Russian: бронено́сец (ru) m (bronenósec)
• Scottish Gaelic: armadillo m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пасанац m, армадѝло m

  Roman: pasanac m, armadìlo (sh) m

• Slovak: pásavec m
• Slovene: pasavec (sl) m
• Spanish: armadillo (es) m (Colombian and Mexican standard usage, Ecuador, Panama), armado (es) m (Guatemala), cachicamo (es) m (Colombian Llanos, Venezuela), carachupa (es) f (Peru), cusuco m (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua), gurre m (Colombia, especially rural usage), jerrejerre m (Colombian Caribbean Coast), mulita f (Argentina, Uruguay), pitero (es) m (Honduras), quirquincho (es) m (Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Western Argentina), tatú m (Eastern Bolivia, Northeastern Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay), toche (es) m (Eastern Mexico), tumulle m (Southern Ecuador)
• Sranan Tongo: kapasi
• Swahili: kakakuona
• Swedish: bälta (sv) c, bältdjur n
• Tagalog: armadilyo
• Thai: นิ่ม (th) (nîm)
• Tswana: kgaga
• Turkish: armadillo
• Ukrainian: бронено́сець (uk) m (bronenósecʹ)
• Uzbek: bronenosets (uz)
• Vietnamese: tatu
• Volapük: tatud
• Wapishana: kapashi
• Wayana: kapasi (Dasypus novemcinctus), mëlaimë (Priodontes maximus), lahpo (Cabassous unicinctus), latawa (Dasypus kappleri), lemu (Euphractus sexcinctus)
• Welsh: armadilo m, armellog m
• Yucatec Maya: weech
• Yuracare: dyolojoto
• Záparo: múraka

See also

• scute
• Xenarthra

Further reading

• armadillo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish armadillo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ər.məˈði.ʎu]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ər.məˈði.ʎo]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [aɾ.maˈði.ʎo]

Noun

armadillo m (plural armadillos)

1. armadillo

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish armadillo.

Noun

armadillo m (plural armadilli)

1. armadillo

Malay

Etymology

Borrowed from English armadillo, from Spanish armadillo, diminutive of armado (“armored”), in reference to its protective plates.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a(r)madilo/
• Rhymes: -ilo, -lo, -o

Noun

armadillo

1. armadillo

Spanish

Etymology

From armado (“armored”) +‎ -illo (“diminutive”), i.e. "little armored one".

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /aɾmaˈdiʝo/ [aɾ.maˈð̞i.ʝo]

• IPA^(key): (most of Spain and Latin America) /aɾmaˈdiʝo/ [aɾ.maˈð̞i.ʝo]
• IPA^(key): (rural northern Spain, Andes Mountains, Paraguay, Philippines) /aɾmaˈdiʎo/ [aɾ.maˈð̞i.ʎo]
• IPA^(key): (Buenos Aires and environs) /aɾmaˈdiʃo/ [aɾ.maˈð̞i.ʃo]
• IPA^(key): (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay) /aɾmaˈdiʒo/ [aɾ.maˈð̞i.ʒo]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

 

• Rhymes: -iʝo

• Rhymes: -iʝo
• Rhymes: -iʎo
• Rhymes: -iʃo
• Rhymes: -iʒo

• Syllabification: ar‧ma‧di‧llo

Noun

armadillo m (plural armadillos)

1. armadillo

   Synonyms: (Mexican Indian) ayotoste, cachicamo

Derived terms

• armadillo andino
• armadillo de nueve bandas

 

Further reading

• “armadillo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10