Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday March 27, 2012
chelonian \ki-LOH-nee-uhn\
, adjective:
1. Belonging or pertaining to the order Chelonia, comprising the turtles.
noun:
1. A turtle.
At the truly chelonian pace of somewhat under two miles per hour, the passengers and crew onboard would cover the twenty-seven hundred miles in just over two months.
-- Caleb H. Johnson, The Mayflower and Her Passengers
The study door crashed back and a seventy-year-old politician stood there, top hat firmly on his head, collar awry around his scrawny, chelonian neck.
-- M. J. Trow, Lestrade and the Sawdust Ring
What pair of messiahs could differ more harshly than Hiram and Magnus, the one a pedantic little fellow with a chelonian paunch and gold eye-glasses and the other a rough, shaggy, carnivorous revivalist from the dreadful steppes?
-- H. L. Mencken, "Editorial," American Mercury Magazine, Jan. to Apr. 1924
Chelonian comes from the Greek word for turtle, chelṓn.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for chelonian
