different between detritus vs culch

English

Etymology

From Latin d?tr?tus (“the act of rubbing away”), from d?ter? (“rub away”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??t?a?t?s/
• Rhymes: -a?t?s

Noun

detritus (usually uncountable, plural detritus or detrita)

1. (countable, chiefly geology) Pieces of rock broken off by ice, glacier, or erosion.
2. (biology, ecology) Organic waste material from decomposing dead plants or animals.
   • 2009, Christian Wirth, Gerd Gleixner, Martin Heimann, Old-Growth Forests: Function, Fate and Value, Springer Science & Business Media (?ISBN), page 159:

     Woody detritus is an important component of forested ecosystems. It can reduce erosion and affects soil development, stores nutrients and water, provides a major source of energy and nutrients, and serves as a seedbed for plants and as a major habitat for decomposers and hetereotrophs.

3. (by extension) Any debris or fragments of disintegrated material.

Derived terms

• detrital / detritic
• detritivore
• zoodetritus

Translations

Further reading

• detritus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Etymology

From d?ter? (“rub away”), from d? (“away”) + ter? (“rub”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /de??tri?.tus/, [d?e??t??i?t??s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /de?tri.tus/, [d???t??i?t?us]

Participle

d?tr?tus (feminine d?tr?ta, neuter d?tr?tum); first/second-declension participle

1. rubbed away, worn away, worn out, having been rubbed away
2. (figuratively) diminished in force, lessened, weakened, impaired, having been weakened
3. (figuratively) worn out, trite, hackneyed, having been worn out

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

Noun

d?tr?tus m (genitive d?tr?t?s); fourth declension

1. The act of rubbing away

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Related terms

• d?ter?
• d?tr?ment?sus
• d?tr?mentum

Descendants

References

• detritus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• detritus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• detritus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Romanian

Etymology

From French détritus, from Latin detritus.

Noun

detritus n (uncountable)

1. detritus

Declension

Spanish

Noun

detritus m (plural detritus)

1. detritus

English

Alternative forms

• sculch, scultch, kulch, cultch

Noun

culch (uncountable)

1. The rocks, crushed shells, and other sea detritus that create an oyster bed, where oyster spawn can attach themselves; a collection of such detritus, accumulated on land, to drop in the sea to build up oyster beds.
2. (US, New England, Maine) An accumulation of small items of little current value -- materials, broken items, miscellaneous fasteners -- for possible future use.
3. (US, New England, Maine) Junk or debris.

Adjective

culch (not comparable)

1. (US, New England, Maine) Location where potentially useful junk items are collected: culch corner, culch drawer, culch pile.

Verb

culch (third-person singular simple present culches, present participle culching, simple past and past participle culched)

1. To prepare an oyster bed with such (culch) attachments; to sort shellfish or fish catch by size -- most often oysters -- so as to throw back the smallest to grow bigger and breed.