Gracility is slenderness, the condition of being gracile, which means slender. It derives from the Latin adjective gracilis (masculine or feminine), or gracile (neuter),[1] which in either form means slender, and when transferred for example to discourse takes the sense of "without ornament", "simple" or various similar connotations.[2]
In Glossary of Botanic Terms, B. D. Jackson speaks dismissively[3] of an entry in earlier dictionary of A. A. Crozier[4] as follows: "Gracilis (Lat.), slender. Crozier has the needless word 'gracile'". However, his objection would be hard to sustain in current usage; apart from the fact that gracile is a natural and convenient term, it is hardly a neologism. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary[5] gives the source date for that usage as 1623 and indicates the word is misused (through association with grace) for "gracefully slender".[5] This misuse is unfortunate at least, because the terms gracile and grace are unrelated: the etymological root of grace is the Latin word gratia from gratus, meaning 'pleasing',[5] and has nothing to do with slenderness or thinness.
In biology
In biology, the term is in common use, whether as English or Latin:
- The term gracile—and its opposite, robust—occur in discussion of the morphology of various hominids for example.
- The gracile fasciculus is a particular bundle of axon fibres in the spinal cord
- The gracile nucleus is a particular structure of neurons in the medulla oblongata
- "GRACILE syndrome", is associated with a BCS1L mutation
In biological taxonomy, gracile is the specific name or specific epithet for various species. Where the gender is appropriate, the form is gracilis. Examples include:
- Campylobacter gracilis, a species of bacterium implicated in foodborne disease
- Ctenochasma gracile, a late Jurassic pterosaur
- Eriophorum gracile, a species of sedge, Cyperaceae
- Euglena gracilis, a unicellular flagellate protist
- Hydrophis gracilis, a species of sea snakes
- Melampodium gracile, a flowering plant species
- Moeritherium gracile, an Eocene mammal species
The same root appears in the names of some genera and higher taxa:
- Gracilaria is a genus of red algae in the order Gracilariales
- Gracillaria is a genus of leaf miner moths in the superfamily Gracillarioidea
See also
- Buckling, for the slenderness ratio in engineering
- Grace (disambiguation)
- Gracilis (disambiguation), a Latin adjective in several species names – as remarked above, the meanings are the same as for gracile, except for their grammatical gender
- Robustness (morphology)
References
- ↑ Gray, Mason D.; Jenkins, Thornton, eds. (1934). "gracile". Latin for Today, Book 2. Ginn and Co., Ltd.
- ↑ Simpson, D. P., ed. (1977). "gracile". Cassell's Latin Dictionary: Latin-English, English-Latin. London: Cassell. ISBN 0-02-522580-4.
- ↑ Jackson, Benjamin Daydon (1928). "gracile". A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Derivation and Accent (4th ed.). London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. W.C.2
- ↑ Crozier, Arthur Alger (1893). "gracile". A Dictionary of Botanical Terms. Henry Holt & Co.
- 1 2 3 Little, William; Fowler, H.W.; Coulson, J.; Onions, C.T., eds. (1968). "gracile". Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principals. Oxford at the Clarendon Press.