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testudinal
Nov. 8th, 2016 07:47 amtestudinal (tes-TOOD-n-l) - adj., of, pertaining to, or resembling a tortoise or turtle, or the shell thereof.
Alternate forms include testudinarious, testudinate, and testudinarian, none of which I'd met before researching this post. Their presence just goes to show that the adjective was coined in English (around 1820) from a Latin root (testūdō, tortoise) instead of borrowing an existing adjectival form. And yes, you can use it in the sense of being as tough as a turtle shell as well as shaped like, though the phrase "testudinal fortitude" is almost nonsense, alas.
---L.
Alternate forms include testudinarious, testudinate, and testudinarian, none of which I'd met before researching this post. Their presence just goes to show that the adjective was coined in English (around 1820) from a Latin root (testūdō, tortoise) instead of borrowing an existing adjectival form. And yes, you can use it in the sense of being as tough as a turtle shell as well as shaped like, though the phrase "testudinal fortitude" is almost nonsense, alas.
---L.
