rhesus

[ ree-suh s ]

/ ˈri səs /

noun

a macaque, Macaca mulatta, of India, used in experimental medicine.

Nearby words

Origin of rhesus

1830–40; < New Latin, arbitrary use of Latin Rhēsus name of a Thracian king allied with Troy < Greek Rhêsos

Related formsrhe·sian

[ree-shuh n] /ˈri ʃən/, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for rhesus

It is doubtful whether it is more than a variety of the Rhesus Monkey (M. rhesus).
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol X., Mammalia|Frank Evers Beddard
The Rhesus, a feeble production long attributed to Euripides, is almost certainly not his work.
The New Gresham Encyclopedia|Various
Indeed one might almost say that the Rhesus is simply the Doloneia turned into drama and set in the Trojan camp.
The Rhesus of Euripedes|Euripedes
Odysseus drives the horses of Rhesus out of the camp with the bow of Meriones; he has forgotten to take the whip from the chariot.
Homer and His Age|Andrew Lang

There has come down to us a remarkable tragedy, called the Rhesus, about a similar region.
Authors of Greece|T. W. Lumb

British Dictionary definitions for rhesus

Rhesus

/ (ˈriːsəs) /

noun

Greek myth a king of Thrace, who arrived in the tenth year of the Trojan War to aid Troy. Odysseus and Diomedes stole his horses because an oracle had said that if these horses drank from the River Xanthus, Troy would not fall

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for rhesus

rhesus

1827, from Modern Latin genus name of a type of East Indian monkey (1799), given by French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Audebert (1759-1800), said to be an arbitrary use of Latin Rhesus, name of a legendary prince of Thrace, from Greek Rhesos.