Labroid

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A fish belonging to the wrasse family, characterized by thick lips and protruding teeth used for crushing shells
2. A species of fish from the family of wrasses, identified by its notably large lips and sturdy teeth suited for shell-crushing purposes
3. A type of fish from the wrasse family known for its distinctive thick lips and strong teeth adapted for breaking open shells

Etymology: "Labroid" is a scientific coinage built from the name of a genus of fish. Labrus is the Latin-form genus name for the wrasses, a large family of brightly coloured, often colourful reef fish, and the Latin word "labrum" (lip) is the likely source of the genus name, since wrasses have prominent, thick lips. The genus name was then combined with the suffix "-oid," from Greek "eidos" (form, likeness), which means "resembling" or "having the form of." So the word literally means "wrasse-like." Naturalists used this pattern to group fishes by family resemblance, so a fish that looks like a wrasse but belongs to another family could be called labroid without any claim of close kinship.