GC: n

S: FAO – https://www.fao.org/4/t0244e/t0244e00.htm (last access: 18 October 2024); NatGeoK – https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/sea-life/turtle-facts/ (last access: 18 October 2024).

N: 1. “tortoise,” by mid-17c. (also tortel), originally “marine tortoise,” from a modification of French tortue, tortre (13c.) “turtle, tortoise” (often grouped with the diabolical beasts), a word of unknown origin. The classical Latin word was testudo, from testa “shell.”

The English word is said to be a sailors’ accommodation of the French one, influenced by “a whimsical association” [Century Dictionary] with the similar-sounding turtle (n.2), the dove. Also compare tortoise.

It later was extended to land tortoises; sea-turtle is attested from 1610s. Turtle-soup is attested by 1763. To turn turtle “turn over, capsize” is by 1818; it also was a method of capturing tortoises.

The tortoise was not native to England in historical times, and the Latin word often is glossed in Middle English by snail, in Old English by shield, also bordðeaca “shield-covering,” gehused snægl “housed snail.”

2. Also known as: Chelonia, Testudines.

• turtle, (order Testudines), any reptile with a body encased in a bony shell, including tortoises. Although numerous animals, from invertebrates to mammals, have evolved shells, none has an architecture like that of turtles. The turtle shell has a top (carapace) and a bottom (plastron). The carapace and plastron are bony structures that usually join one another along each side of the body, creating a rigid skeletal box. This box, composed of bone and cartilage, is retained throughout the turtle’s life. Because the shell is an integral part of the body, the turtle cannot exit it, nor is the shell shed like the skin of some other reptiles.
• There are approximately 356 species of turtles living on land in all continents except Antarctica and in both salt water and fresh water. Tortoises (family Testudinidae) live exclusively on land and have anatomic features distinguishing them from other turtles, but the term tortoise has long been used to refer to other terrestrial testudines as well, such as the box turtle and the wood turtle. Similarly, terrapin was sometimes used to describe any aquatic turtle but is now largely restricted to the edible diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) of the eastern United States.
• Despite turtles’ broad distribution, there are not and never seem to have been a great many species of turtles at any time over the course of their long evolutionary history. The small number of species, however, does not equate to a lack of diversity. There are turtles with carapace lengths (the standard way to measure turtles) of less than 10 cm (4 inches), as in the flattened musk turtle (Sternotherus depressus), and of more than 1.5 metres (4.9 feet), as in the leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). Some species live in seasonally cold climates with growing seasons of only about three months; others live in the tropics and grow year-round. Some tortoises rarely see water, while other turtles spend virtually their entire lives in it, be it in a single small pond or traveling the vast open ocean.

3. Reptiles and Amphibians; Phraseology: turtle.

• Group: a bale or turn of turtles. There are no specific terms for the male, female or young of the species.

4. Reptiles and Amphibians: tortoise.

• Latin: chelonia.
• When we speak of aquatic reptiles today we think of turtles, or chelonians, which appeared in mid-Triassic times …
• Tortoises and turtles: reptiles having the body encased in a large flattened bony capsule composed of a number of dermal bones forming the dorsal carapace and the ventral plastron. These may or may not be covered by dermal horny plates roughly corresponding to the underlying bones.

5. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the fable The Hare & the Tortoise by Æsop (c. 620–564 BCE), and the novel Turtles All the Way Down (2017) written by John Green. We can also refer to “Crush”, a sea turtle and a major character in Disney/Pixar’s 2003 animated film Finding Nemo and its 2016 sequel.

S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=TURTLE (last access: 18 October 2024). 2. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/animal/turtle-reptile (last access: 18 October 2024). 3 & 4. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=tortue&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 18 October 2024). 5. ReadGov – https://read.gov/aesop/025.html (last access: 18 October 2024); GR – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35504431-turtles-all-the-way-down (last access: 18 October 2024); Disney – https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Crush, https://www.disneylandparis.com/en-int/attractions/walt-disney-studios-park/crushs-coaster/ (last access: 18 October 2024).

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CR: salmonellosis, snake, zoonosis.