Atrax

Translingual

Etymology

Coined by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge and published in 1877

Possibly from Latin ātra (feminine nominative) meaning dull black, dark., but more likely from Latin Atrax- although there is no obvious connection between Australian spiders and ancient Greece. A third possibility could involve a misspelling of Latin atrox, having the meaning ‘terrible, frightening, dreadful’ (more appropriate in the light of the potency of the venom).

Proper noun

Atrax m

1. A taxonomic species within the family Hexathelidae – certain of the funnel-web tarantulas.

Hypernyms

• (genus): Araneae - order; Opisthothelae - suborder; Mygalomorphae - infraorder; Hexatheloidea - superfamily; Hexathelidae - family; Atracinae - subfamily; Atrax - genus

Hyponyms

• (genus): Atrax robustus, Atrax sutherlandi, Atrax yorkmainorum - species

Further reading

• Atrax on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Atrax on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Atrax on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Atrax at National Center for Biotechnology Information

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἄτραξ (Átrax).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈa.traks], [ˈat.raks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈaː.traks], [ˈat.raks]

Proper noun

Atrax m sg (genitive Atracis); third declension

1. A town of Thessaly, situated above the river Peneus
2. a river in Aetolia, mentioned by Pliny

Declension

Third-declension noun, with locative, singular only.

	singular
nominative	Atrax
genitive	Atracis
dative	Atracī
accusative	Atracem
ablative	Atrace
vocative	Atrax
locative	Atracī Atrace

Related terms

• Atraces
• Atracis
• Atracius

References

• “Atrax”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Atrax”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “Atrax”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly