autotomy

autotomy

English

Etymology

From auto- +‎ -tomy, after German Autotomie or French autotomie.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɔːˈtɒtəmi/

Noun

autotomy (countable and uncountable, plural autotomies)

1. (chiefly zoology) The spontaneous removal of a limb, tail etc, especially by some invertebrates as a self-defense mechanism.
   • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:

     She has dropped it by autotomy, like the tail or claw of a fleeing lizard, lobster, or starfish.

Hyponyms

• tail-shedding

Translations

invertebrate self-defense mechanism

Basque: autotomia (eu) Belarusian: аўтатамія f (aŭtatamija) Bulgarian: автотомия f (avtotomija) Catalan: autotomia f Chinese: Mandarin: 自割 (zigē) Czech: autotomie f Danish: autotomi c Estonian: autotoomia Finnish: autotomia French: autotomie (fr) Galician: autotomía (gl) f German: Autotomie (de) f Hungarian: autotómia Ido: autotomio (io) Italian: autotomia f Japanese: 自切 (jisetsu) Kazakh: aвтотомия (avtotomiä) Norwegian: autotomi m Polish: autotomia (pl) f Portuguese: autotomia f Russian: автотоми́я (ru) f (avtotomíja), аутотоми́я (ru) f (autotomíja) Slovak: autotómia f Spanish: autotomía (es) f Swedish: autotomi (sv) c Tajik: aвтотомия (avtotomiya) Tamil: தற்பிரிவு (taṟpirivu) Turkish: ototomi Ukrainian: автотомі́я f (avtotomíja) Uzbek: avtotomiya