anopheles
UK /əˈnɒfɪliːz/ · US /əˈnɑfəliz/ noun
Forms anopheleses
- noun (entomology, loosely, also attributive) A mosquito of the genus Anopheles, some insects of which transmit various parasites of the genus Plasmodium that are the cause of malaria.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from taxonomic name Anopheles (“genus of mosquitoes”), coined by the German entomologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen (1764–1845), from Ancient Greek ἀνωφελής (anōphelḗs, “unprofitable, useless; hurtful, prejudicial”), from ἀν- (an-) (a variant of ᾰ̓- (ă-, prefix forming terms having senses opposite to stems or terms to which it is attached)) + ὄφελος (óphelos, “advantage, benefit, good”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰel-) + -ης (-ēs, suffix forming third-declension adjectives). Doublet of Ophelia
Webster’s 1913
- noun A genus of mosquitoes which are secondary hosts of the malaria parasites, and whose bite is the usual, if not the only, means of infecting human beings with malaria. Several species are found in the United States. They may be distinguished from the ordinary mosquitoes of the genus Culex by the long slender palpi, nearly equaling the beak in length, while those of the female Culex are very short. They also assume different positions when resting, Culex usually holding the body parallel to the surface on which it rests and keeping the head and beak bent at an angle, while Anopheles holds the bod
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “anopheles”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details