English
teliferous
Teliferous comes from Latin tēlum ‘dart, spear, missile, offensive weapon, javelin’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtēlum1‘dart, spear, missile, offensive weapon, javelin’
- Englishearliest quotation 1883teliferous1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English teliferous
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1883, Charles Ashford, The Darts of British Helicidæ: Part I., Introductory: “The occurring British forms, though varying much in proportion…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtēlumWiktionary, English teliferous‘dart, spear, missile, offensive weapon, javelin’
- Englishearliest quotation 1883teliferousWiktionary, English teliferous. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1883, Charles Ashford, The Darts of British Helicidæ: Part I., Introductory: “The occurring British forms, though varying much in proportion…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- ‘beam, stake’
detective, detection, detect, tile, thug, sauna, toga, thatch, staccato, toque, 26 more
Today it means
adj Having nematocysts or stinging cells.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “teliferous”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin tēlum / teliferous