scolopendra
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun Some imaginary sea-monster.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- noun A genus of venomous myriapods including the centipeds. See centiped.
- noun A sea fish.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- noun A mythical sea-creature, reputed to be able to disgorge its bowels to dislodge any fishing-hook.
Examples
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We came across the odd scorpion and an immense creature called scolopendra gigantean, which resembles a giant earwig and is one of the largest insects in the world.
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The so-called fox-shark, when it finds it has swallowed the hook, tries to get rid of it as the scolopendra does, but not in the same way; in other words, it runs up the fishing-line, and bites it off short; it is caught in some districts in deep and rapid waters, with night-lines.
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Insects that are long in shape and many-footed can live for a long while after being cut in twain, and the severed portions can move in either direction, backwards or forwards; thus, the hinder portion, if cut off, can crawl either in the direction of the section or in the direction of the tail, as is observed in the scolopendra.
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The so-called sea-scolopendra, after swallowing the hook, turns itself inside out until it ejects it, and then it again turns itself outside in.
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The physeter then giving up the ghost, turned itself upon its back, as all dead fishes do; and being thus overturned, with the beams and darts upside down in the sea, it seemed a scolopendra or centipede, as that serpent is described by the ancient sage Nicander.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel
Note
The word 'scolopendra' comes from a Greek word possibly meaning 'thorn' and 'earthworm'.
