culmen

Etymology

From Latin culmen (“apex, acmé”).

Noun

culmen (plural culmens or culmina)

1. top; summit; acme

   (Can we find and add a quotation of R. North to this entry?)

2. (zoology) The dorsal ridge of a bird's bill.
   • 1997 June 20, “A Role for Ecotones in Generating Rainforest Biodiversity”, in Science‎, volume 276, number 5320, DOI:10.1126/science.276.5320.1855, pages 1855-1857:

     The measurements were taken as follows: wing length, from the carpal joint to the tip of the longest primary; tarsus length, from the tibiotarsal joint to the distal undivided scute; upper mandible length, the chord length from the point where the culmen enters the feathers of the head to the tip; bill depth, in the vertical plane level at the anterior edge of the nares.

   • 1910, Alfred M. Tozzer and Glover M. Allen, Animal Figures in the Maya Codices‎:

     A very simple form was found in the carving shown in Pl. 17, fig. 13, where a long projecting knob is seen at the base of the culmen.

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kolamen, from Proto-Indo-European *kelH-. Doublet of columen.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkul.men/, [ˈkʊɫ.mẽ]

Noun

culmen n (genitive culminis); third declension

1. stalk
2. top, roof, summit
3. (figuratively) height, acme

References

• culmen in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• culmen in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• culmen in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• culmen in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the summits of the Alps: culmina Alpium
    
• Collins Latin Dictionary, →ISBN

Noun

culmen m (plural cúlmenes)

1. height, epitome, high point