chrysalis
/ˈkɹɪsəlɪs/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms chrysalises chrysalides chrysalisses chrysalising chrysalised chrysallis chrysalid chrysaloid
- noun A butterfly pupa or the pupal stage of the butterfly lifestyle; (originally) any pupal stage of any insect wherein the pupa is largely inactive and takes no food.
- noun The bare hanging cocoon of butterfly pupae; (originally) any cocoon.
- noun (figurative) Any limiting environment or situation escaped during one's growth or development in the manner of a butterfly.
- verb (intransitive) To form a chrysalis or cocoon.
- verb (intransitive) To metamorphize, to undergo metamorphosis, to transform.
- proper noun A hypothetical former moon of Saturn, whose gravitational influence is proposed as the source of Saturn's inclination and near-resonance with Uranus, and whose destruction by gravitational disruption is proposed as the source of Saturn's rings.
- proper noun A proposed generation ship, which would use fusion rockets and take 400 years to travel from the Sun to Alpha Centauri. See PROJECT HYPERION and Project Hyperion (interstellar).
Etymology
From Latin chrysalis, variant of chrȳsallis, from Ancient Greek χρυσαλλίς (khrusallís), usually derived from χρυσός (khrusós, “gold, golden”) + -αλλ- + -ις (-is, “-id: forming feminine nouns”) but compare θρυαλλίς (thruallís) and ἀρυβαλλίς (aruballís), both believed to come from a Pre-Greek substrate on the basis of their unusual endings.
From chrysalis. Coined in 2022.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The pupa state of certain insects, esp. of butterflies, from which the perfect insect emerges. See Pupa, and Aurelia (a).
Etymology [L. chrysallis the gold- colored pupa of butterflies, Gr. Aurelia.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chrysalis”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details