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cirrus

cir·rus

US/ˈsɪɹəs/ uncommon obsolete

noun

1.
2.

a wispy white cloud (usually of fine ice crystals) at a high altitude (4 to 8 miles)

Synonyms
3.

a slender flexible animal appendage as on barnacles or crinoids or many insects; often tactile

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin cirrus (“curl; fringe of clothes; mane (especially forelock) of a horse; etc”); further etymology unknown. Sense 2 (“type of cloud”) was coined by the British chemist and amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772-1864): see the 1803 quotation. The plural form cirri is also a learned borrowing from Latin cirrī, the nominative or vocative plural of cirrus.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.