Thursday word: anophelicide

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

anophelicide (ah-NOHF-uh-luh-ceyed) - n., an agent that kills mosquitoes.


(One more -cidal word.) Or more particularly, mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. As for why that of all forty-one genera of mosquitoes, it's the one that includes all the species that transmit malaria to humans. The word is a coined mishmash of Greek stem anopheles being from Greek an, not + óphelos, profit -- in other words, useless -- and Latin suffix for a killing or a killer.

My itchy ankle tells me we need an anophelicide -- quick, Henry, the Flit!

---L.

Comments

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

You don't need to kill 'em. Just confuse them with different smells. I use geranium when I go to hot countries. Then again, it helps, but a lot of them still bite me.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Sometimes an anophelofuge is not enough.

---L.