Rhinophore

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A pair of elongated sensory tentacles on the head of a nudibranch or sea slug, used to detect chemical signals and odors in water
2. One of two prominent chemosensory appendages found on the anterior end of nudibranchs, functioning to locate food and mates
3. A slender, tentacle-like sensory structure possessed by sea slugs and similar mollusks for detecting dissolved substances in their marine environment

Etymology: "Rhinophore" is a compound built from "rhino-" and "-phore," and each piece carries its own Greek sense. "Rhino-" comes from Greek "rhis" (genitive "rhinos"), meaning "nose," which also gives English words like rhinoplasty and rhinitis. "-phore" comes from Greek "phoros," from "pherein," "to bear" or "to carry," the same root behind "metaphor" and "semaphore." Put together, a rhinophore is literally a "nose-bearer." The term is used in zoology for the paired sensory structures on the heads of certain sea slugs and nudibranchs, which look like small horns or tentacles and detect chemicals in the water. The name is a descriptive coinage from classical roots, so the ancient Greeks themselves would not have recognised it as a technical term; it was formed in modern scientific Latin and Greek for naming anatomy.