cucullus

Definitions

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  • noun In botany, an organ folded in the form of a hood or cowl, as the upper sepal of Aconitum.
  • noun A cowl or monk's hood: as in the proverb Cucullus non facit monachum (the cowl does not make the monk).
  • noun [NL.] In zoology and anatomy, a formation or coloration of the head like or likened to a hood.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • noun A hood-shaped organ, resembling a cowl or monk's hood, as certain concave and arched sepals or petals.
  • noun A color marking or structure on the head somewhat resembling a hood.

Examples

  • The play was to last from morning to evening without pauses for meals; and as the spring weather was cold and uncertain, the spectators were advised to bring the garment known as "cucullus," a short white Roman mantle with a hood, which was all the more necessary as the theatre stood under the open sky.

    Historical Miniatures

  • Among the Romans, the hood (cucullus, a word of Celtic origin) was worn as a separate garment especially by drivers, herdsmen, and labourers; and by all classes as part of the lacerna, the birrus, and particularly the paenula, varieties of cloaks.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability

  • My comrade, as he called himself, told me what passages he chose in the history of his life: how he came to be frocked (but 'cucullus non facit monachum'), and how, in the troubles of these times, he had discovered in himself a great aptitude for the gunner's trade, of which he boasted not a little.

    A Monk of Fife

  • _Non facit monachum cucullus, -- _it was not his hood and girdle that made him a monk; he was thoroughly saturated with their spirit before he put them on.

    Castilian Days

  • Lady, cucullus non facit monachum; that's as much to say as I wear not motley in my brain.

    Twelfth Night; or What You Will

Note

The word 'cucullus' comes from a Latin word meaning 'hood'.