Monday, March 30, 2009

Coralline

The American Heritage Dictionary defines coralline as an adjective as "of, consisting of, or producing coral; resembling coral, esp. in color." The word can also be used as a noun meaning "any of various red algae of the family Corallinaceae whose fronds are covered with calcareous deposits; any of various organisms that resemble coral."

Coralline came to the English language from Latin as corallium, meaning coral. Late Latin changed the spelling to corallinus. From there it went through French as corallin before entering English as coralline.

The word coralline is most notable today with a different spelling, Coraline, from the Neil Gaiman story of the same name. Coraline is used as a name for the main character.

Source: AHD 4th Edition

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.