petiole

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   botany: the stalk that attaches a leaf blade to a plant stem

   The leaf's petiole bent toward the light while the blade remained flat.

2. 2
   noun

   entomology: a narrow waist-like body segment, especially in ants, bees, and wasps

   A slender petiole joins the ant's thorax to its abdomen.

3. 3
   noun

   the narrow stalk supporting the nest of a paper wasp

   The wasp attached the nest's petiole beneath the branch.

Borrowed through French pétiole from Late Latin petiolus, 'little foot,' a diminutive related to Latin pes, 'foot.' The leaf stalk was imagined as a small supporting foot; zoology later applied the form to other narrow stalk-like structures.

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