‖ glossoˈpetra Obs.
[mod.Lat. use of L. glōssopetra (Pliny), a stone said to have the shape of the human tongue, a. Gr. γλωσσοπέτρα, f. γλῶσσα tongue + πέτρα rock.]
? Some kind of fossil tooth.
| 1668 Evelyn Diary 23 July, At the Royal Society, were presented divers glossa petra's. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 488 Why are the glossopetra and the relics of other fishes so universally found in the deepest, as well as the most elevated, strata of the earth? 1795–8 T. Maurice Hindostan (1820) I. i. xiii. 474 The glossopetræ, or sharks' teeth, found so plentifully in the island of Malta. |