proboscis
(prəʊˈbɒsɪs)
Pl. proˈboscides (-ɪdiːz), proˈboscises (-ɪsɪz); erron. probosces.
[a. L. proboscis, -cidem (Plin.), a. Gr. προβοσκίς, -κιδ- an elephant's trunk, lit. ‘a means of providing food’ (Liddell & Scott), f. πρό, pro-2 + βόσκειν to feed.]
1. An elephant's trunk; also applied to the long flexible snout of some other mammals, as the tapir and proboscis-monkey.
| [1576 Eden tr. Vertomannus' Voy. iv. ix, The trunke or snoute of the elephant (which of the Latines is called Promuscis or Proboscis). 1601 Holland Pliny I. 195.] 1609 Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 312 As the Elephant vseth her proboscis or trunke. a 1631 Donne Progr. Soul 390 Like an unbent bowe carelesly His sinewy Proboscis did remisly lie. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 347 Th'unwieldy Elephant To make them mirth us'd all his might, and wreathd His Lithe Proboscis. 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. xxx. (1737) 138 With their Snouts or Proboscis's..they draw up Water. 1700 S. L. tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 328 At last he lifted up his Proboses, and made a horrid noise. 1803 Nicolls in Gurw. Wellington's Desp. (1837) II. 586 note, To each pair of iron 12 pounders, an elephant is attached, which assists them in their draught..they apply their proboscis..to the muzzle. 1872 Mivart Elem. Anat. xi. (1873) 435 The upper lip may unite with the nose to form an elongated proboscis, as in the Elephant. |
2. humorous. The human nose.
| 1630 B. Jonson New Inn ii. ii, No flattery for't, No lickfoot, pain of losing your proboscis. 1705 Dyet of Poland 1 The World's Proboscis near the Globe's Extreme. 1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle i, A fair enough proboscis as noses go. |
3. Entom. Applied to various elongated, often tubular and flexible, parts of the mouth of insects.
a. The beak or rostrum of the Rhynchophora or snout-beetles. b. The long coiled haustellum, antlia, or sucker of the Lepidoptera. c. The buccal apparatus of the Hymenoptera. d. The sucking mouth of a fly.
| 1645 Evelyn Diary 18 Jan., Three jettos of water gushing out of the mouthes or proboscis of bees (the armes of the late Pope). 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Some have a proboscis like flies. 1664 [see probe n. 2]. 1792 J. Hunter in Phil. Trans. LXXXII. 173 The male of the humble bee, which collects its own food, has as long a proboscis, or tongue, as the female. 1828 [see promuscis 2]. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §615 Amongst..the Bugs..the mouth is armed with a tubular and cylindrical proboscis, directed downwards and backwards. Ibid. §616 Amongst the Flies..the proboscis..represents the under lip, and often bears palpi at its base... Sometimes this proboscis acquires an enormous length; sometimes on the contrary it is hardly visible. 1863 Bates Nat. Amazon vii. (1864) 173 Their habit is to attach themselves to the skin by plunging their proboscides into it. |
4. An extensible tubular structure of varying function in other invertebrates, esp. a sucking organ in various worms, and the tongue of some mollusks.
| 1796 Bell in Southey Life (1844) II. 27 These spawns..dart about in all directions... Some of the largest have proboscises. 1830 R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 381 Entozoa..the head furnished with fossulæ, suckers, and one or more naked or armed proboscides. 1872 Nicholson Palæont. 119 The aperture of the anus..is usually placed excentrically in one of the spaces between the arms, and..generally..carried at the end of a longer or shorter tubular eminence or process..called the ‘proboscis’. |
5. Short for proboscis-monkey.
| 1882 H. De Windt Equator 105 Excitement as to whether the ‘moniet’ was but a common proboscis or wa-wa. |
6. attrib. and Comb., as proboscis-like adj.; proboscis-monkey, a large semnopithecine ape, Nasalis larvatus: = kahau; proboscis-rat = elephant shrew (Cent. Dict. 1890).
| 1849 Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia III. 58 The Indian tapir..has no mane, and the snout is longer and more *proboscis-like. |
| 1793 Pennant Quadrupeds (ed. 3) II. 322 *Proboscis Monkey..the nose projecting very far beyond the mouth..in the profile it exactly resembles a long proboscis. 1885 W. T. Hornaday 2 Yrs. in Jungle xxxiii. 395 The proboscis monkey..is found only in Borneo. |
Hence proboscised (prəʊˈbɒsɪst) a., furnished with a proboscis.
| 1883 Thompson tr. Müller's Fert. Flowers 579 Long-proboscised varieties of insects. |