Acaudate

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /eɪˈkɔˌdeɪt/

Definitions

1. Lacking a tail or tail-like appendage
2. Characterized by the absence of a tail or any tail-like structure
3. Describing organisms or entities that do not possess a tail or similar appendage

Etymology: "Acaudate" is a plain technical formation: the prefix "a-", meaning "without", joined to "caudate", "having a tail." The prefix comes from Ancient Greek "a-" (the negating prefix seen in words like "atheist" and "anarchy"), which traces back to a very old root shared with the English "un-" and "non-". "Caudate" itself comes from Latin "cauda", meaning "tail", and it is the older of the two in English. The pairing is a deliberate one. Naturalists needed a precise way to say that an animal lacked a tail, and so they combined a Greek negating prefix with a Latin-derived descriptive term. This mixing of Greek and Latin parts is typical of scientific vocabulary, and the word belongs to that technical register rather than everyday speech.

Synonyms: tailless