See also: Bacillus and Bacilli

English

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bacilli
Wikispecies has information on:

Wikispecies

Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin bacillus (little staff, wand), diminutive of baculum (stick, staff, walking stick).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /bæˈsɪl.əs/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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bacillus (plural bacilli)

  1. Any of various rod-shaped, spore-forming aerobic bacteria in the genus Bacillus, some of which cause disease.
    • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Stolen Bacillus:
      'This again,' said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, 'is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of cholera - the cholera germ.'
    • 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt [], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
      "You will conceive a bunch of grapes," said he, "which are covered by some infinitesimal but noxious bacillus.
  2. Any bacilliform (rod-shaped) bacterium.
  3. (figurative, by extension) Something which spreads like bacterial infection.
    • 1934 [2018], Gottfried Haberler quoted in Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 71:
      The “bacillus of boom or depression,” he wrote, travels freely “from country to country.”

Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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Latin

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Etymology

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Diminutive of baculus (staff, walking stick).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bacillus m (genitive bacillī); second declension

  1. Alternative form of bacillum

Declension

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Second-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative bacillus bacillī
genitive bacillī bacillōrum
dative bacillō bacillīs
accusative bacillum bacillōs
ablative bacillō bacillīs
vocative bacille bacillī

Descendants

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  • French: bacille
  • Galician: bacelo
  • Russian: баци́лла f (bacílla)

References

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  • bacillus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • bacillus in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016