proboscis

From Latin proboscis, from Ancient Greek προβοσκίς (proboskís, “elephant's trunk”) literally "means for taking food," from προ- (pro-, “before”) +‎ βόσκω (bóskō, “to nourish, feed”), from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷeh₃- from which also comes βοτάνη (botánē, “grass, fodder”).

• IPA^(key): /pɹə(ʊ)ˈbɒs(k)ɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

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proboscis (plural proboscises or proboscides or probosces)

1. (anatomy) An elongated tube from the head or connected to the mouth, of an animal.
   • 2025 June 25, Elle Hunt, “From Chimpanzini Bananini to Ballerina Cappuccina: how gen alpha went wild for Italian brain rot animals”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief of the site Know Your Meme, namechecks Brr Brr Patapim, “a proboscis monkey that is also a tree”, as one who made it to YouTube.

   1. (entomology, malacology) The tubular feeding and sucking organ of certain invertebrates like insects, worms and molluscs.
      • 2012, Brian Wiegmann, The Evolutionary Biology of Flies‎^[2], page 225:

        Unlike the proboscides of Lower brachyceran lineages, which are continuous with the head capsule and tend to dangle (Matsuda 1965), the proboscides of most cyclorrhaphan species are suspended by a membranous region and divided into three functional parts: the basiproboscis (rostrum), medioproboscis (haustellum), and distiproboscis (labellum), each of which is defined by internal muscles but also shares muscles with the other regions (Graham-Smith 1930; Lall and Davies 1971).

   2. The trunk of an elephant.
2. (informal, mildly humorous) A large or lengthy human nose.

• The learned plural proboscides is prevalent in biological literature. Otherwise the plural proboscises tends to pair with the pronunciation in /-skɪs/, while the plural probosces tends to pair with the pronunciation in /-sɪs/.

• proboscis monkey
• proboscis worm

From Ancient Greek προβοσκίς (proboskís).

proboscis f (genitive proboscidis); third declension

2. snout
3. trunk of an elephant

Third-declension noun.

• → English: proboscis
• Italian: proboscide
• Portuguese: probóscide
• Spanish: probóscide