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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

labretifery en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˌleɪbrəˈtɪfəri/

Etymology

From labret + -i- + -fer + -y.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) The practice of wearing a labret.
    • They include labretifery, tattooing the chin of adult women, certain uses of masks, a certain style of conventionalizing objects, the use of conventional signs as hieroglyphics, [...] and of artistic representations connected with their common religious or mythological ideas. 1911, Ellen Churchill Semple, Influences of Geographic Environment on the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography,, page 395:
    • Labretifery occurred over a wide distribution from the Kuriles to southern British Columbia in the late prehistoric period. 1995 Allen P. McCartney, Hunting the largest animals: native whaling in the western Arctic and subarctic, Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta, p9
    • In Africa labretifery is quite common, and varies from tribe to tribe. 1891 Prof. Frederick Starr, "Dress and Adornment," Popular Science, Vol. 39, No. 30 (August 1891), Bonnier Corporation, p490