armadillo
(ɑːməˈdɪləʊ)
Also 6–8 armadillio, 7 -ilio, -ile, 7–8 -illa.
[a. Sp. armadillo, dim. of armado one armed:—L. armātus, pa. pple. of armar:—L. armāre to arm. The spellings -illio, -ilio, represented the Sp. pronunciation; armadile was perh. from Fr. As a 16th c. word, the plural is historically in -oes, but -os is now usual.]
1. Name of several species of burrowing animals (order Edentata), peculiar to South America; specially distinguished by the bony armour in which their whole body is encased, and by the habit of rolling themselves, when captured, into an impregnable ball, sheltered by this armour.
| 1577 Frampton Joyf. Newes ii. 73 b, He is called the Armadillo, that is to saie a beaste armed. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. v. xii. 555 The beast Armadillio is found in the Realme of Mexcio. a 1618 Raleigh Apol. 37 Tortoyses, Armadiles. 1764 Watson Armadilla in Phil. Trans. LIV. 57 Called by naturalists the American Armadilla. 1781 Smellie Buffon's Nat. Hist. (1785) V. 362 The armadillos, instead of hair, are covered..with a solid crust. 1834 Sir C. Bell Hand 51 Ant-eaters, armadilloes and sloths have this bone [the clavicle]. 1868 Wood Homes without H. i. 42 All the Armadillos..are mighty burrowers. |
2. transf. A genus of small terrestrial Crustacea (order Isopoda), allied to the wood-louse; so called after the preceding, because they have the power of rolling themselves into a ball, so as to expose nothing but the plates of the back.
| 1847 Carpenter Zool. §799. 1859 Wood Com. Obj. Countr. iv. 65 Formerly the armadillo was used in medicine, being swallowed as a pill in its rolled up state. |