gypsobelum en · NOUN
Etymology
Coined by British malacologist John W. Taylor ca. 1900, from γύψος (gúpsos, “lime”) + βέλος (bélos, “dart”).
Meanings
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A love dart
On the one hand, there’s the slug, who comes equipped with a gypsobelum, or “love dart,” that it fires, like a “hormone-slick porcupine quill to subdue the object of its desire.”
2015 October 9, Emily Eakin, “Bonnie Jo Campbell’s ‘Mothers, Tell Your Daughters’”, in New York Times: