Cercoid

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Having the form or appearance of a tail, or shaped like one in its structure
2. Resembling a tail in shape, so as to suggest the tapering structure of a tail
3. Shaped like a tail, or relating to the tail-like part of an animal's body

Etymology: Cercoid is a technical coinage built from two Greek parts. The first, "kerkos," meant "tail" in ancient Greek, and the second, "-oid," comes from "eidos," meaning "form" or "shape," so the word literally means "tail-like." It was formed in English as a scientific term, not inherited from antiquity, and is used of things that resemble a tail in shape. The root also gave English "cercopithecid," the name of the family of Old World monkeys, whose name means "tailed ape" in its Greek origin. Ancient Greek writers had no use for "cercoid" itself, so its meaning was fixed by the naturalists who coined it.