Part of Speech: noun
Pronunciation: ['kæ-rê-peys]
Definition: (1) A hard outer covering or exoskeleton, such as the shell of a turtle or lobster; (2) any protective covering like a turtle shell, literal or figurative.
Usage: The word "shell" is so broad in its meaning that it can lead to confusion. In referring to an animal encased in a shell, use today's word with its more focused meaning: "The only evidence of the clambake the night before was a beach strewn with corncobs and empty lobster carapaces." Since this word is associated with turtles, however, it lends itself comfortably to an image of figurative withdrawal, "When life becomes too complicated for Ethylene, she pulls her head into her carapace and shuts out the world."
Suggested Usage: "Carapace" comes with a rarely used adjective "carapacial," which automatically entails an adverb, "carapacially." Remember that the accent falls on the first syllable and you will have no trouble with today's word.
Etymology: English slipped a copy of today's word out of French, who had it on loan from Spanish, where it was carapacho "tortoise shell." It may be a victim of metathesis (switching places), a reduction of "?carapazon" by metathesis from caparazon "caparison, body-armor or parade trappings of a horse." This word is the augmentative of Medieval Latin capara "a hood coming over the shoulders." This word is an extension of Medieval Latin capa "cape." Unfortunately, we have no evidence of the metathesis.
carapace \KAIR-uh-pace\, noun:
1. The thick shell that covers the back of the turtle, the crab, and other animals.
2. Something likened to a shell that serves to protect or isolate from external influence.
. . .a gauge for measuring the length of a lobster's carapace from the thorax to the eye socket.-- Richard Adams Carey, Against the Tide
Hannah Jelkes, . . . who wears an air of cool reserve like a carapace.-- Howard Taubman, "Theatre: 'Night of the Iguana' Opens", New York Times, December 29, 1961
Desperate to win his father's attention and respect, Kennedy became a hard man for a long while, covering over his sensitivity and capacity for empathy with a carapace of arrogance.-- Evan Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life
Eisenman, who is Meier's second cousin, was so neurotically insecure about his abilities that he sought to hide them within the dense carapace of arcane
theory.-- Martin Filler, "The Spirit of '76", New Republic, July 9, 2001
Almost all the vivid, eyewitness accounts we have . . . date from a quarter of a century later, when Degas, celebrated and successful, had developed a crusty, cantankerous carapace, from which he emerged occasionally to deliver his
famously caustic and enigmatic mots.-- Christopher E. G. Benfey, Degas in New Orleans
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