theca

From New Latin, from Latin thēca, from Ancient Greek θήκη (thḗkē, “a case, box, receptacle”), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “put, set, place”). Doublet of tay.

• IPA^(key): /ˈθiːkə/

theca (plural thecas or thecae)

1. (biology) Any external case or sheath.
2. (botany) The pollen-producing organ usually found in pairs and forming an anther.
3. (medicine) The twin layers of cells surrounding the basal lamina of an ovarian follicle.
4. (microbiology, planktology) The membrane complex enveloping the cells of certain plankton including diatoms and dinoflagellates.
5. (marine biology) The calcareous wall of a corallite, the exoskeleton of a coral polyp.
6. (Christianity) A case for the corporal cloth used in the Eucharist.

Theca (1) of a dinoflagellate

• thecium

• theca in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• theca in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• theca at OneLook Dictionary Search

• 'tache, Tache, Taché, Teach, Tâche, chate, cheat, he-cat, tache, teach

• theeca

• IPA^(key): /ðɛːɕa/

theca (infinitive gũtheca)

1. to pierce, to stab[1]

(Nouns)

• mũthece class 3

Borrowed from Ancient Greek θήκη (thḗkē, “a case, box, receptacle”), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “put, set, place”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtʰeː.ka/, [ˈt̪ʰeːkä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈte.ka/, [ˈt̪ɛːkä]

thēca f (genitive thēcae); first declension

1. a case, envelope, sheath

First-declension noun.

• Aromanian: teacã
• French: taie, thèque
• → Irish: tiach
• Italian: tega, teca
• Romanian: teacă
• Spanish: tecla

• hypothēca

• “theca”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “theca”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• theca in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• theca in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• theca in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911