termes

From the New Latin generic name Termes, from the Late Latin termes, late variant of the Classical Latin tarmes (“woodworm”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɜːmiːz/

termes (plural termites)

1. A termite.
   • 1781, Henry Smeathman in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society LXXI, page 160:

     These turret nests, built by two different species of Termites.

   • 1800, The Asiatic Annual Register, page 5/2:

     The termes, or what is called the white ant, infests this island.

   • 1834, Thomas Pringle, African Sketches, chapter viii, page 287:

     The termes of South Africa is not the destructive species.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:termes.

• termite

• “‖Termes” on page 203/2 of § 2 (T–Th, ed. James Augustus Henry Murray) of part ii (Su–Th) of volume IX (Si–Th, 1919) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1st ed.)
• “‖termes” in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed., 1989)

• Emerts, Mester, S meter, Tesmer, merest, mester, meters, metres, restem

termes

1. plural of terme

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termes m

1. plural of terme

• mestre, mètres, remets

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈter.mes/, [ˈtɛr.mɛs]

Traditionally derived from terō (“I rub away”), but unknown.

termes m (genitive termitis); third declension

1. a branch or bough of a tree, especially one severed thence
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   • ante AD 180, Aulus Gellius (author), John Carew Rolfe (editor and translator), Noctes Atticae in The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, with an English Translation (1927), book II, chapter xxvi, §§ 9–10:

     Nam ‘poeniceus,’ quem tu Graece φοίνικα dixisti, noster est et ‘rutilus’ et ‘spadix,’ poenicei συνώνυμος, qui factus e Graeco noster est, exuberantiam splendoremque significant ruboris, quales sunt fructus palmae arboris non admodum sole incocti, unde spadici et poeniceo nomen est; enim Dorice vocant avulsum e palma termitem cum fructu.

     For poeniceus, which you call φοῖνιξ in Greek, belongs to our language, and rutilus and spadix, a synonym of poeniceus which is taken over into Latin from the Greek, indicate a rich, gleaming shade of red like that of the fruit of the palm-tree when it is not fully ripened by the sun. And from this spadix and poeniceus get their name; for spadix in Doric is applied to a branch torn from a palm-tree along with its fruit. ― translation from the same source

   • ibidem, book III, chapter ix, § 9:

     Quem colorem nos, sicuti dixi, poeniceum dicimus, Graeci partim φοίνικα, alii σπάδικα appellant, quoniam palmae termes ex arbore cum fructu avulsus “spadix” dicitur.

     This colour, as I have said, we call poeniceus; the Greeks sometimes name it φοῖνιξ, at others σπάδιξ, since the branch of the palm (φοῖνιξ), torn from the tree with its fruit, is called spadix. ― translation from the same source

Third declension.

• termĕs¹ in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• termĕs¹ in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette: “1,559/2”
• “termes” on page 1,926/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)

See tarmes (“woodworm”).

termes m (genitive termitis); third declension

1. (Late Latin) Alternative spelling of tarmes
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Third declension.

• Translingual: Termes (taxonomic name)
  • English: termes
• French: termite
• German: Termite

• termes² in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• termes in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• termĕs⁴ in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette: “1,559/2”
• termes in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• termes in Richard Stillwell et al., editor (1976) The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press

• Termes, tremes