cucurbitin Zool.
(kjuːˈkɜːbɪtɪn)
[ad. L. cucurbitīnus pertaining to or like a gourd, f. cucurbita. In F. cucurbitin, -ain.]
A name for each separated segment or proglottis of a tapeworm, from its resemblance to the seed of a gourd.
| [1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. xlix. (1495) 262 Wormes that ben nourisshed..in the nether grete bowelles hyghte Ascarides and Cucurbitini, for they ben lyke to the seedes of gourdes.] 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. vii. xiii. 400 The successive transformations which the Tænia communis undergoes..The fourth stage is that of the Cucurbitins, or separated segments. |