Chelicerata

plural noun

Che·​lic·​er·​ata kə-ˌli-sə-ˈrä-tə 

-ˈrā-tə

: a subphylum or other division of the phylum Arthropoda comprising forms having chelicerae and lacking antennae and including the horseshoe crabs and eurypterids, spiders, scorpions, and sea spiders

A fossil eurypterid, representing the Chelicerata.

—Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life, 1989

see arachnida , merostomata , pycnogonida

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, Latinization (with New Latin -ata -ata) of French chélicérés, from chélicère chelicera + -és, plural of -é, adjective and participle ending going back to Latin -ātus -ate entry 3

First Known Use

1919, in the meaning defined above

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