lytta

American  

[lit-uh] / ˈlɪt ə /

noun

lyttas, plural lyttae plural

1. a long, worm-shaped cartilage in the tongue of the dog and other carnivorous animals.

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lytta British  

/ ˈlɪtə /

noun

1. a rodlike mass of cartilage beneath the tongue in the dog and other carnivores

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• lyttae
  plural
• lyttas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of lytta

1595–1605; < New Latin < Greek lýtta, Attic form of lýssa rage, rabies; so named because the cartilage was thought to be a parasite causing rabies

Example Sentences

Unwormed, un-wurmd′, adj. not wormed, not having had the worm or lytta under the tongue cut out—of a dog.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

Pliny, and some subsequent writers, attributed rabies to a worm under the animal's tongue which they called "lytta."

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)