coriaceous
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of coriaceous
First recorded in 1665–75, coriaceous is from the Late Latin word coriāceus leathern. See corium, -aceous
Explanation
Coriaceous is a botanist's term for leathery in appearance, or just tough. You're not going to see it often used outside scientific contexts. To remember this word, think of corrugated which also describes a kind of surface roughness. Or think about how courageous people like sailors and mountain climbers end up with coriaceous or leathery skin. The word itself is a lesson in historical linguistics: Coriaceous is related to the Latin word corium, which entered English in the 1650s, and traces its history back to the Pan Indo European root *(s)ker-(1), which is responsible for the Sanskrit krtih "hide," and the Old English sceran "to cut, shear."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Scales well imbricated, coriaceous, with short herbaceous mostly obtuse spreading tips; pappus of rigid bristles; stem-leaves all sessile, none heart-shaped or clasping; heads few, or when several corymbose, large and showy.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Capsule truncate, coriaceous, 3-lobed, loculicidal at the summit.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Fertile involucre closed, coriaceous, ovoid or oblong, clothed with hooked prickles so as to form a rough bur, 2-celled, 2-flowered; the flower consisting of a pistil and slender thread-form corolla.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Pod coriaceous, stipitate, terete, more or less constricted between the seeds, indehiscent.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Fruit oblong, coriaceous, few-seeded.—Perennial slender submerged herbs, with elongated branching stems, thickly beset with pellucid and veinless, 1-nerved, sessile, whorled or opposite leaves.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
