Dictionary

amplection en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English amplection, amplexion, from Latin amplexiō (“act of embracing”), from amplex-, past participial stem of amplector (“surround; embrace”), + -iō. In this form, with remodelling after Latin amplector. By surface analysis, amplect + -ion.

Meanings

1. (archaic, rare) An embrace.
   • The amplection of the ruddy goose, the swan’s accolade, mongoose embrace, and the interlacing of pigeons .... she has all these gracious gestures at command. 1927, Edward Powys Mathers, transl., The lessons of a bawd, translation of the Kuṭṭanīmata of Dāmodaragupta, page 70:
   • Here let us cross the river Taw to Instow, on the left hand, which some call Yonestow, stands as a witness to the marriage of Taw and Torridge, which with their close amplections have demi-insulated this parish. a. 1636, Thomas Westcote, A view of Devonshire in MDCXXX, published 1845, page 310:
   • Yet such are the Authors whom M.N. followeth and adoreth, witness his wise amplexion of Helmont's Archoeus […]. 1665, Robert Sprackling, Medela ignorantiae, page 81:
2. (dated, uncommon) A form of pseudocopulation, found chiefly in amphibians and horseshoe crabs, in which a male grasps a female with his front legs; amplexus.
   • The most commonly observed amplection in the laboratory is one in which the left second gnathopod is reversed and hooked under the posterior portion of the fifth peraeon segment of the female. 1988, C. Lavett Smith, editor, Fisheries Research in the Hudson River, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 262:
   • The first two pairs of legs are chelate or sub- chelate, better developed in males and useful for prehension primarily in copulatory amplexion. 1961, J Laurens Barnard, “Amphipoda”, in Peter Gray, editor, The Encyclopedia of the Biological Sciences, Reinhold Pub. Corp, page 28:
   • The mating amplexion in this species is axillary, as described for other species of the Bufonidae. 1927, Tracy Storer, A Synopsis of the Amphibia of California, University Of California Press, page 177:

Forms

Relateds

amplect · amplexus · amplex · amplexation