spearlet en · NOUN
Etymology
From spear + -let.
Meanings
-
A small spear.
While the poisonous spearlets are now directed largely against rival males, the trait could well have served among ancestral monotremes as the equivalent of a bee’s sting, to ward off the Bigfeet that ever threatened to crush them.
2008 May 13, Natalie Angier, “A Gene Map for the Cute Side of the Family”, in New York Times:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| spearlets | Number=Plur | lexicographic |