tegmen

See also: teğmen

English

Etymology

From New Latin, from Latin tegmen, syncopated form of tegimen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛɡ.mən/

Schematic image of the tegmen as it appears in a section through a pea, just within the testa

At rest the tegmen of this grasshopper covers the folded flight wings, which in fact are highly coloured and need camouflage

In flight the tegmina are not much used; they are held away, exposing the coloured flight wings in a sophisticated misdirection tactic.

Noun

tegmen (plural tegmina)

1. (biology) A covering or integument, usually referring to a thin layer or membrane in an organism.
2. (botany) An integument such as the inner membrane of the coat of a seed.
3. (anatomy) A covering such as the thin layer of bone in the roof of the middle ear of mammals.
4. (entomology) In insects such as winged cockroaches and locusts, the tegmina are the stiff, membranous fore wings; in many species they are not primarily used for flight, but serve as protective covering for the delicate hind wings, which are the main organs of flight. Note that the more heavily armoured fore-wings of most beetles are called elytra, not tegmina.

Latin

Etymology

From tegō (“I cover”) +‎ -men (noun-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈteɡ.men/, [ˈt̪ɛɡmɛn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈteɡ.men/, [ˈt̪ɛɡmen]

Noun

tegmen n (genitive tegminis); third declension

1. Alternative form of tegimen

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	tegmen	tegmina
genitive	tegminis	tegminum
dative	tegminī	tegminibus
accusative	tegmen	tegmina
ablative	tegmine	tegminibus
vocative	tegmen	tegmina

References

• “tegmen”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tegmen in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.