testacea

From Latin testāceus (“covered with a shell”).

testacea pl (plural only)

1. (biology, obsolete) Any of various shellfish, especially those of the obsolete orders Vermes or Acephala, or the suborder Thecosomata.
   • 1722, John Jones (tr.), Oppian's Halieuticks of the Nature of Fishes and Fishing of the Ancients, page 231:

     ANAIMONA, Aquatilia Exanguia, Bloodless Fishes, are divided into Mollia Soft Fishes without Shells; Crustata, those that are covered with thin pliant Shells; and Testacea, those which have thick, hard brittle Shells.

   • 1829, Andrew Ure, A New System of Geology, page 285:

     The echinite family […] may be deemed characteristic of the chalk formation, affording of itself as many shells as the other testacea do.

   • 1832, Charles Lyell, chapter I, in Principles of Geology […] , volume II, London: John Murray, page 11:

     […] to fancy, for example, that the testacea of the ocean existed first, until some of them, by gradual evolution, were improved into those inhabiting the land.

testacea (uncountable)

1. (rare, obsolete) A testaceous substance, something made of shell or shell-like material.

• Testacea (Translingual)

• acetates

testacea

1. feminine singular of testaceo

testācea

1. inflection of testāceus:
   1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

testāceā

1. ablative feminine singular of testāceus