testa

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin testa.

Noun

testa (plural testas or testae or testæ)

1. (botany) A seed coat.

   The testa develops from the tissue, the integument, originally surrounding the ovule.

   • 1840, James Scott Bowerbank, A History of the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay, page 30,

     The seeds are furnished with a reticulated testa, very much in appearance like that of the seeds of two closely-allied pericarps in the cabinet of my friend Mr. Ward, of Wellclose-square, the names of which I have been unable to obtain, but which present strong evidence of belonging to the Malvaceæ.

   • 1969, C. W. Bennett, Seed Transmission of Plant Viruses, Alison Smith, Advances in Virus Research, Volume 14, page 224,

     In tests with the Lincoln and Virginia varieties of cowpea, Crowley (1959) found that, in plants infected with bean southern mosaic virus before blossoming, the virus was present in nearly 100% of the testae and endosperms of seeds of both varieties, but could not be detected in the embryos.

   • 1977, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australian Journal of Plant Physiology, page 354,

     Thus, two conditions must be satisfied for the testas to have this effect: contact between the testas and the radicle, and the presence of at least half of the testas.

   • 2005, D. W. Dickson, D. De Waele, Nematode Parasites of Peanut, Michel Luc, Richard A. Sikora, John Bridge, Plant Parasitic Nematodes in Subtropical and Tropical Agriculture, page 419,

     A.^{[Aphelenchoides]} arachidis is a parasite of pods, testae, roots and hypocotyls, but not the cotyledons, embryos or other parts of the plant (Bos, 1977a; Bridge et al., 1977).

   • 2007, J. Smartt, Evolution of American Phaseolus beans under domestication, Peter John Ucko, G. W. Dimbleby (editors), The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, page 458,

     One of the most remarkable features of cultivated beans is the enormous range of testa colours and patterns which can be found.

2. (marine biology) The external calciferous shell, or endoskeleton, of an echinoderm; the test.

Anagrams

• State, aetts, atest, state, taste, teats

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɛs.ta/

Verb

testa

1. third-person singular past historic of tester

Anagrams

• états, tâtes, tétas

Etymology 1

From Old Galician and Old Portuguese testa (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin testa (“earthen pot”).

Etymology 2

From Latin texta (“woven”).

References

• “testa” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “testa” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “testa” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “testa” in Santamarina, Antón (coord.): Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.
• “testa” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛs.ta/, [ˈt̪ɛs̪t̪ä]

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛsta
• Stress: tèsta
• Hyphenation: te‧sta

Etymology 1

From Latin testa.

Etymology 2

See etymology on the main entry.

Anagrams

• setta, state

Etymology

• As if tosta, from torreō (“to burn, parch”).^[1]
• Others refer it to Proto-Indo-European *teḱs- (“to plait, woodwork, carpenter”), like Latin texō (“to weave”).^[2]

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtes.ta/, [ˈtɛs.ta]

Noun

testa f (genitive testae); first declension

1. a piece of burned clay, brick, tile
2. (transf.) a piece of baked earthenware
   1. an earthen pot, pitcher, jug, urn
   2. a sherd, potsherd
   3. a piece of bone
   4. ostracon (= ὄστρακον (óstrakon))
   5. the shell of shellfish or of testaceous animals, shellfish, skull
3. a sort of clapping with the flat of the hands (as if with two tiles), in token of applause, invented by Nero

References

• testa in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• testa in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• testa in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• testa in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• testa in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• testa in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• testa in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Noun

testa m

1. genitive singular form of tests

Alternative forms

• testet

Verb

testa

1. simple past of teste
2. past participle of teste

Etymology

From Latin testa.

Noun

testa f (oblique plural testas, nominative singular testa, nominative plural testas)

1. head

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛʃ.tɐ/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛs.tɐ/
• Hyphenation: tes‧ta

Etymology 1

From Old Portuguese testa, from Latin testa.

Verb

testa

1. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present indicative of testar
2. second-person singular (tu, sometimes used with você) affirmative imperative of testar

Etymology

From Latin testa (“pot”).

Noun

testa f (plural testas)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Surmiran, Puter, Vallader) head

Etymology

From Latin testa (“brick”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t̪ʲɛs(ʃ)ta/
• Hyphenation: te‧sta

Noun

testa f (plural testi)

1. (anatomy) head
2. intelligent person
3. intelligence

Etymology 1

From Latin testa.

Etymology 2

Inflected form of testar.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Verb

testa (present testar, preterite testade, supine testat, imperative testa)

1. try, attempt; to see if a specific action is possible; also to see if a device works properly.