flagellum

From Latin flagellum (“whip”), diminutive of flagrum, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlag- (“to strike”).

• IPA^(key): /fləˈd͡ʒɛləm/
• Rhymes: -ɛləm

flagellum (plural flagella or flagellums or (proscribed) flagellae)

1. (biology) In protists, a long, whiplike membrane-enclosed organelle used for locomotion or feeding.
2. (biology) In bacteria, a long, whiplike proteinaceous appendage, used for locomotion.
3. A whip

• (organelle of protists): cilium
• (whip): whip

Borrowed from Latin flagellum.

• IPA^(key): /flaːˈɣɛ.lʏm/
• Hyphenation: fla‧gel‧lum

flagellum m (plural flagella)

1. flagellum

   Synonyms: flagel, zweepdraad, zweephaar, zweepstaart

flagellum m (plural flagellums)

1. flagellum (whip)

From flagrum (“scourge, whip”) +‎ -lum.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /flaˈɡel.lum/, [fɫ̪äˈɡɛlːʲʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /flaˈd͡ʒel.lum/, [fläˈd͡ʒɛlːum]

flagellum n (genitive flagellī); second declension

1. whip, lash, scourge
   • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 25.9–13:

     […] nē lāneum latusculum manūsque mollicellās
     inusta turpiter tibī flagella cōnscribillent […]

     […] so that your soft side and your tender hands
     burning lashes may not shamefully scribble on […]

2. whip for driving animals (riding horses, cattle etc.)
3. tentacle
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.361–372:

     […] utque sub aequoribus dēprēnsum pōlypus hostem
     continet ex omnī dīmissīs parte flagellīs.

     […] and how under the seas the polyp holds fast the captured enemy
     with tentacles dispatched from every side.

4. young branch, shoot
   • c. 4th century, Tiberianus, Pervigilium Veneris 5–6:

     Crās amōrum cōpulātrīx inter umbrās arborum
     implicat casās virentēs dē flagellō myrteō.

     Tomorrow the binder of loves amongst the shades of trees
     weaves green cottages from myrtle branches.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• scutica
• lorum
• verber

• flagellō
• flagrum

Borrowings

• “flagellum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “flagellum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• flagellum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• flagellum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.