plastron

See also: plastrón

English

The plastron (underside) of a Cann's snake-neck turtle (Chelodina canni)

A fencing plastron

Etymology

Borrowed from French plastron, from Italian piastrone, augmentive of piastra (“breastplate”), from Latin emplastrum (“plaster”), from Ancient Greek ἔμπλαστρον (émplastron), from ἔμπλαστος (émplastos, “daubed, plastered”), from ἔμπλασσειν (émplassein, “to mould, form”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplæstɹən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æstɹən

Noun

plastron (plural plastrons)

1. The nearly flat part of the shell structure of a tortoise or other animal, similar in composition to the carapace.
   • 1982, Gene Wolfe, chapter 28, in The Sword of the Lictor (The Book of the New Sun; 3), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, pages 208–209:

     The great tortoise that in myth is said to support the world and is thus an embodiment of the galaxy, without whose swirling order we would be a lonely wanderer in space, is supposed to have revealed in ancient times the Universal Rule, since lost, by which one might always be sure of acting rightly. Its carapace represented the bowl of heaven, its plastron the plains of all the worlds.

2. (fencing) A half-jacket worn under the jacket for padding or for safety.
3. A man's shirt-bosom.
4. An ornamental front panel on a woman's bodice.
   • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 784:

     I bought here a wedding dress perhaps twenty or thirty years old [...] a sequin plastron to be worn over the womb as a feminine equivalent to a cod-piece, and a gauze veil embroidered in purple and gold.

5. A breastplate.
   • 1831, George Payne Rainsford James, Philip Augustus, Or, The Brothers in Arms, page 122:

     "Why, compared to what thou wast, Hugo, thou art as a deerskin coat to a steel plastron.-- Art thou not in love, man? Answer me!" "Something like, I fear me, beau sire,” replied the squire.

   • 1964, Charles McKew Parr, Ferdinand Magellan, Circumnavigator, New York: T.Y. Crowell Company:

     He therefore persuaded the Casa de Antillas to supply him with a hundred steel plastrons or corselets, with armlets and shoulder plates, and a hundred morions, or pikemen's helmets. This heavy armor was suitable […]

6. A film of air trapped by specialized hairs against the body of an aquatic insect, and which acts as an external gill.

   The plastron of a diving beetle is not directly a source of oxygen, but acts as a gill, acquiring oxygen from the surrounding water.

   • 2013, Jill Lancaster, Barbara J. Downes, Aquatic Entomology, page 45:

     Total independence of atmospheric air is possible only if insects have a permanent gas store or incompressible gas gill, called a plastron. Unlike compressible gas stores, the volume of a plastron remains constant and it is incompressible.

   • 2013, Jon F. Harrison, Lutz T. Wasserthal (revisions & updates), 17: Gaseous Exchange, R. F. Chapman, Stephen J. Simpson (editor), Angela E. Douglas (editor), The Insects: Structure and Function, 5th Edition, page 535,

     The plastrons of other insects are generally less efficient than that of Aphelocheirus as they have a less dense hair pile from which the air is more readily displaced.

Derived terms

• entoplastron
• epiplastron
• hyoplastron
• hypoplastron
• plastronal
• xiphiplastron

 

Translations

part of the shell structure of a tortoise

• Polish: plastron (pl) m
• Russian: пластро́н (ru) m (plastrón)

fencing

• Polish: plastron (pl) m

men's shirt

• Polish: plastron (pl) m

breastplate

• Polish: plastron (pl) m

film of air trapped by specialized hairs against the body of an aquatic insect

• Polish: plastron (pl) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Japanese: 胸当て (muneate)
• Kala Lagaw Ya: ^{(please verify)} áth

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French plastron, from Italian piastrone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plɑsˈtrɔn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: plas‧tron
• Rhymes: -ɔn

Noun

plastron n (plural plastrons)

1. plastron (lower part of a turtle/tortoise shell) [from 19th c.]
2. plastron, breastplate, piece of armour covering the chest [from 17th c.]

Esperanto

Noun

plastron

1. accusative of plastro

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian piastrone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plas.tʁɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

plastron m (plural plastrons)

1. breastplate (piece of armour)
2. (fencing) plastron
3. chest pad; chest protection; chestguard
4. (zoology) plastron (part of a turtle's shell)
5. shirt front; the front of a shirt
6. plastron (ornamental front part of a bodice)
7. (zoology) breast (front part of certain birds)

Derived terms

• plastronnant
• plastronné
• plastronner

Descendants

• → Dutch: plastron
• → English: plastron
• → Polish: plastron
• → Romanian: plastron

Further reading

• “plastron”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from French plastron.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplas.trɔn/
• Rhymes: -astrɔn
• Syllabification: plas‧tron

Noun

plastron m inan

1. plastron, neckcloth (men's shirt-bosom)
2. plastron (stiffened front of dress shirt)
3. (fencing) plastron (half-jacket worn under the jacket for padding or for safety)
4. plastron (nearly flat part of the shell structure of a tortoise or other animal, similar in composition to the carapace)
5. (historical) plastron, breastplate

   Synonym: napierśnik

6. (biology) plastron (film of air trapped by specialized hairs against the body of an aquatic insect, and which acts as an external gill)

Declension

Declension of plastron

	singular	plural
nominative	plastron	plastrony
genitive	plastronu	plastronów
dative	plastronowi	plastronom
accusative	plastron	plastrony
instrumental	plastronem	plastronami
locative	plastronie	plastronach
vocative	plastronie	plastrony

Further reading

• plastron in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1908), “plastron”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 4, Warsaw, page 223
• plastron in Narodowy Fotokorpus Języka Polskiego

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French plastron.

Noun

plastron n (plural plastroane)

1. plastron

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	plastron	plastronul		plastroane	plastroanele
genitive-dative	plastron	plastronului		plastroane	plastroanelor
vocative	plastronule			plastroanelor