Affixes: -ptera

Affixes: the building blocks of English

Home Introduction About the author Types of affixes Thematic indexes Search the site A B C D E F G H I JK L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Previous entry Next entry Up to index of P

-ptera Also -pteran and -pterous.

Winged animals.

[Greek pteron, wing.]

This ending forms systematic names for groups of animals with wings, mainly the insects but also the bats, of which some examples are in the list below. Forms in -pteran are either adjectives relating to the group or names for members of it (coleopteran, dipteran); other adjectives are formed in -pterous (heteropterous, orthopterous).

Examples of words in -ptera
All word origins are from Greek.

*Chiroptera*	the bats	kheir, hand
*Coleoptera*	the beetles	koleos, sheath
*Diptera*	the two-winged or true flies	di-, two
*Ephemeroptera*	the mayflies	ephēmeros, lasting only a day
*Hemiptera*	the true bugs, including aphids, cicadas, and leafhoppers	hemi-, half, because of their forewing structure
*Heteroptera*	a group of true bugs comprising those in which the forewings are non-uniform	heteros, other
*Homoptera*	a group of true bugs comprising those in which the forewings are uniform in texture, such as aphids, whitefly, scale insects, and cicadas	homos, same
*Hymenoptera*	a large order of insects that includes the bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies, with four transparent wings	humēn, membrane
*Isoptera*	the termites	isos, equal, because members have four large equal wings
*Lepidoptera*	the butterflies and moths, which have wings covered in scales	lepis, lepid-, scale
*Neuroptera*	the lacewings, alderflies, snake flies, and ant lions, which have four finely veined membranous wings	neuron, veined
*Orthoptera*	the grasshoppers, crickets, and their relatives, which have straight and narrow forewings	orthos, straight

Visit Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words site for 2000+ articles on English!