Eudrilid

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Any of various earthworms belonging to the family Eudrilidae, many of which are found in tropical Africa
2. A worm of the large earthworm family Eudrilidae, native chiefly to the warmer regions of Africa and nearby areas
3. A segmented soil-dwelling worm classified within the Eudrilidae, a family of earthworms found mostly in tropical lands

Etymology: Eudrilids are earthworms of the family Eudrilidae, a group found mostly in Africa and the tropics. The name is a modern scientific coinage rather than an ancient word. It is built on the genus name "Eudrilus", which combines Greek "eu-", meaning "well" or "good", with "drilos", a Greek word for a worm, so the whole name roughly means "good worm". Taxonomists formed the family name by adding the standard "-id" ending, used for animal families, to the genus. Because it is a technical term, the word has no everyday history of its own. It entered English through scientific Latin and zoological writing in the 19th century, when naturalists were naming the worms they collected from around the world. The "-id" ending follows the same pattern as names like "felid" for cats and "canid" for dogs.