ophiure

== English == === Etymology === From translingual genus name Ophiura (originally species name in Linnaeus), from New Latin ophiurus (“brittle star”), from Ancient Greek ὄφις (óphis, “serpent”) + οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) (referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star). This English form by conflation with suffix -ure (“result of an action; official procedure”). === Noun === ophiure (plural ophiures) (rare) Any echinoderm of the class Ophiuroidea 1864, The sea, translator unknown, original by M. J. Michelet, page 128: From the bottom of his nets a fisherman one day gave me three almost dying creatures, a sea hedgehog, a sea star, and another star, a pretty ophiure, which still moved and soon lost its delicate arms. 1990, Acta Societatis Zoologicae Bohemoslovacae, volume 54, Czechoslovak Zoological Society, page 3: Other symbionts found on the same host were: Lissoporcellana pectinata Haig (Porcellanidae), crabs Quadrella sp. (Trapeziidae), some specimens of spider-crab family Majidae, and ophiures (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea). ==== Synonyms ==== (echinoderm): ophiuroid, brittle star == French == === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ɔ.fjyʁ/ === Noun === ophiure f (plural ophiures) ophiuroid, brittle star === Further reading === “ophiure”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012