passalus

noun

pas·​sa·​lus

ˈpasələs

1

capitalized : the type genus of the family Passalidae

2

plural -es : any beetle of Passalus or a related genus

especially : a flat shiny black gregarious bess-bug (Popilius disjunctus) of the southern U.S.

called also horned passalus

Word History

Etymology

New Latin, from Greek passalos peg; akin to Greek pēssein to fix, fasten, pēgnynai to fix, fasten

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