ungula
Americannoun
plural
ungulaenoun
-
maths a truncated cone, cylinder, etc
-
a rare word for hoof
Other Word Forms
- ungular adjective
Etymology
Origin of ungula
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin ungula a claw, hoof, talon, diminutive of unguis unguis
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.
Onomatopœia is the suiting of sound to sense; as,— quadrupedante putrem sonitū quatit ungula campum, 'And shake with horny hoofs the solid ground.'
From New Latin Grammar by Bennett, Charles E. (Charles Edwin)
The horses are better; there is the dash of high venture in them; they have snuffed battle; their limbs are suppled to a bounding gallop,—as where in the Æneid, "Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum."
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 68, June, 1863 by Various
Some have supposed it a poetical imitation of the sound of the trampling of horses, and compare this passage with the celebrated line of Virgil--"Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum."
From Female Scripture Biographies, Volume I by Cox, Francis Augustus
In another famous onomatopoeic line— "Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum" —Virgil imitates the sound of a galloping horse, and the shaking of the ground beneath its hoofs.
From Grain and Chaff from an English Manor by Savory, Arthur H.
Professor J. N. Grant points out to me the possible borrowing from Ennius Ann 439 Vahlen3 'it eques et plausu caua concutit ungula terram'.
From The Last Poems of Ovid by Akrigg, Mark Bear
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.
