Chelonian

Word of the Day for Tuesday, March 27, 2012

chelonian \ki-LOH-nee-uhn\, adjective:

1. Belonging or pertaining to the order Chelonia, comprising the turtles.

noun:
1. A turtle.

At the truly chelonian pace of somewhat under two miles per hour, the passengers and crew onboard would cover the twenty-seven hundred miles in just over two months.
-- Caleb H. Johnson, The Mayflower and Her Passengers

The study door crashed back and a seventy-year-old politician stood there, top hat firmly on his head, collar awry around his scrawny, chelonian neck.
-- M. J. Trow, Lestrade and the Sawdust Ring

What pair of messiahs could differ more harshly than Hiram and Magnus, the one a pedantic little fellow with a chelonian paunch and gold eye-glasses and the other a rough, shaggy, carnivorous revivalist from the dreadful steppes?
-- H. L. Mencken, "Editorial," American Mercury Magazine, Jan. to Apr. 1924

Chelonian comes from the Greek word for turtle, chelṓn.

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