haus·tel·lum[1] [haw-stel-uhm]
n. plural haus·tel·la [haw-stel-uh]
- (in certain crustaceans and insects) an organ or part of the proboscis adapted for sucking blood or plant juices.
My grandpa used to give me words like this to lookup in his 50 million pound dictionary. The thing smelled like leather and dirt and coffee and pipe smoke. Did I mention it was heavy?
So why is haustellum a word my grandpa would have “assigned” to me?
Because he would know it contains a word I wouldn’t know the definition for and then I’d have to look up that word which would usually mean I would have to look up another. You get the idea. Give me a break. I was six.
Proboscis was the word that got me this time.
It sounded vaguely familiar. And then I remembered why I recognized it:
- [1]“haustellum.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 04 Aug. 2010. ↩
