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prehensile
Jan. 29th, 2021 07:44 amprehensile (pree-HEN-sil, pree-HEN-sail) - adj., able to take hold of and grasp objects.
Most often seen in terms of prehensile tails, such as those of New World monkeys, but other body parts can be, such as the hands of most primates, noses of elephants, tongues of giraffes, feet of perching birds, tentacles of octopuses, and so on. There's also a metaphoric extension of quickly grasping things mentally, but that's not commonly mentioned in dictionaries and may be largely outdated. Entered English in the early 1780s from French préhensile, which was coined by naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) from Latin prehensus, the past participle of prehendere, grasp/seize.
---L.
Most often seen in terms of prehensile tails, such as those of New World monkeys, but other body parts can be, such as the hands of most primates, noses of elephants, tongues of giraffes, feet of perching birds, tentacles of octopuses, and so on. There's also a metaphoric extension of quickly grasping things mentally, but that's not commonly mentioned in dictionaries and may be largely outdated. Entered English in the early 1780s from French préhensile, which was coined by naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) from Latin prehensus, the past participle of prehendere, grasp/seize.
---L.
