Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A little bird; hence, any ungrown bird; a nestling, fledgling, or chick.
- noun [capitalized] [NL.: in allusion to the wing-like expansion of the hinge.] In conchology, a genus of bivalve mollusks, typical of the family Aviculidœ; the wing-shells. A. hirundo is the type.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A genus of marine bivalves, having a pearly interior, allied to the pearl oyster; -- so called from a supposed resemblance of the typical species to a bird.
Etymologies
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Examples
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Their teacher had a feathered pet -- "quædam avicula quæ vulgo ob ruborem corpusculi rubisca nuncupatur" -- a robin-redbreast, in fact, an animal whose good fortune it is never to be mentioned without some kindly reference to his universal popularity, and the decoration which renders him so easily recognised wherever he appears.
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Tim., ii, 9; etc. The pearl is a concretion consisting chiefly of carbonate of lime found in several bivalve mollusks, but especially in the avicula margaritifera.
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Sed verba Dei non mentiuntur, et exempla ostendunt etc. Econtra qui Verbo Dei fidunt, die muessen genug haben etc., ut David, qui erat vergeucht [verjagt] und verscheucht ut avicula; tamen mansit rex.
Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
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Mr. Ray has given an excellent characteristic of it when he says, "_Rostrum et pedes in hac avicula multo majores sunt quam pro corporis ratione_."
qms commented on the word avicula
Gossip in whispers, not boldly.
(I hear that it's true, but don't hold me...)
Cite no one particular -
Your source is avicula.
Just say that "a little bird told me."
December 14, 2014