sphragis

English

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsfræd͡ʒɪs/
Audio (US): (file)

Noun

sphragis (plural sphragides)

(zoology, especially entomology) A mating plug in the genital opening of a female, formed from a waxy secretion deposited by a male during mating.
- 1999, Roger Laurence Kitching, Biology of Australian Butterflies, page 129:
  The plastic mass begins to harden quite rapidly, probably within a few minutes but, as largely hollow sphragides have been dissected from pairs killed in copula, possibly more than one ejaculation may be required to complete the body of the sphragis.
- 2008, Andrew F. E. Neild, The butterflies of Venezuela:
  Mated females of many acraeine species bear an unusual structure around their genital opening. Such structures are called sphragides (singular: sphragis), or more rarely spermatophragma (Ehrlich & Ehrlich, 1978; Orr, 1995).
- 2009, Sharman Apt Russell, An Obsession With Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair With A Singular Insect:
  Bert first began studying sphragides in the Australian Big Greasy. The male, patterned in red, white, and black, is larger than the female and violent in his mating.
Synonym of sphragide
- 2003, W. Rudolph Reinbacher, Healing Earths: The Third Leg of Medicine : a History of Minerals in Medicine with Rare Illustrations from 300 to 1000 Years Ago:
  This made Lenian earth the first sgillated medicinal earth and wherever in literature the term terra sigillata appears without a location suffix, it refers to Lemnian earth, sometimes called Lemnia sphragis which is Greek for terra sigillata from Lemnos.
- 2012, Nicholas Everett, The Alphabet of Galen: Pharmacy from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, page 359:
  The best Siopic red ochre is found on the island of Lemnos, and is called sphragis.

Synonyms

(zoology): copulation plug, copulatory plug, coitus plug, sperm plug, vaginal plug, sement

Related terms

sphragistic

References

“sphragis”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Mating plug on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σφραγίς (sphragís, “seal”).

Noun

sphrāgis f (genitive sphrāgidis); third declension

A kind of stone used for seals
(mineralogy) Lemnian earth
A little ball of plaster in medicine

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	sphrāgis	sphrāgidēs
genitive	sphrāgidis	sphrāgidum
dative	sphrāgidī	sphrāgidibus
accusative	sphrāgidem	sphrāgidēs
ablative	sphrāgide	sphrāgidibus
vocative	sphrāgis	sphrāgidēs

References

“sphragis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press