different between mooncalf vs taxonomy

English

Alternative forms

• moon-calf

Etymology

From moon +? calf, after a superstition that the moon caused abnormal fetal development.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?mu?nk??f/

Noun

mooncalf (plural mooncalves)

1. (now rare) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act II, Scene 2,^[1]

     Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How camest thou to be the siege of this moon-calf? Can he vent Trinculos?

2. A poorly-conceived idea or plan. [from 17th c.]
3. A dreamer, someone absent-minded or distracted; a fool, simpleton. [from 17th c.]
   • 1902, John Kendrick Bangs, Olympian Nights, New York: Harper & Bros., Chapter 10, p. 185,^[2]

     “ […] you’re a jobbernowl and a doodle, a maundering mooncalf and a blockheaded numps, a gaby and a loon; you’re a Hatter!” I shrieked the last epithet.

   • 1957, Ogden Nash, “Come On In, The Senility Is Fine” in You Can’t Get There From Here, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p. 66,^[3]

     But I can think of no one but a mooncalf or a gaby

     Who would trust their own child to raise a baby.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber, 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 463,

     He slipped it softly onto her unresisting finger and, like the unwise moncalf he was, kissed it.

Related terms

• moon
• moonstruck
• moonbat

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French taxonomie. Surface analysis taxo- +? -nomy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tæk?s?n?mi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /tæk?s??n?mi/
• Rhymes: -?n?mi

Noun

taxonomy (countable and uncountable, plural taxonomies)

1. The science or the technique used to make a classification.
2. A classification; especially, a classification in a hierarchical system.
3. (taxonomy, uncountable) The science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms.

Synonyms

• taxonomics
• (science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms): alpha taxonomy

Coordinate terms

• nomenclature
• ontology

Derived terms

Translations