carapace

Borrowed from French carapace (“tortoise shell”), from Spanish carapacho,[1] of unknown origin, but likely from an extinct Ibero-Mediterranean substrate language.

Compare Catalan carabassa, Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos, “beetle”), Latin scarabaeus (the source of scarab); also Spanish galápago (“kind of turtle”). Doublet of calipash.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛɹ.əˌpeɪs/, /ˈkæ.ɹəˌpeɪs/

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carapace (plural carapaces)

1. A hard protective covering of bone or chitin, especially one which covers the dorsal portion of an animal.
2. in figurative use
   • 1928, Edward A. Ross, World Drift, New York; London: The Century Co., page 12:

     So, little by little, youth loosens the hard carapace of confining custom their elders have built over the human heart.

   • 2010 January 8, Simon Jenkins, “The proliferation of nuclear panic is politics at its most ghoulish”, in The Guardian, §: “Comment & Debate”, page 29, column 4:

     This is all a massive failure of science to pierce the carapace of public ignorance.

• carapaced
• carapaceous
• carapacial

Borrowed from Spanish carapacho (“carapace, shell”)[1], of uncertain origin.

carapace f (plural carapaces)

1. shell

• → English: carapace
• → English: calipash
• → Italian: carapace
• → Portuguese: carapaça
• → Romanian: carapace

Borrowed from French carapace (“tortoise shell”).

• IPA^(key): /ka.raˈpa.t͡ʃe/
• Rhymes: -atʃe
• Hyphenation: ca‧ra‧pà‧ce

carapace m (plural carapaci)

1. carapace

From French carapace.

carapace f (plural carapace)

1. shell (of a turtle)