Covered with or having very small needle-like structures or prickles; minutely prickly.
From Latin 'aculeolus' (very small needle), a diminutive form of 'aculeus' (needle), combined with the English adjective suffix '-ate'. The diminutive form suggests these are especially tiny, delicate needles. This botanical term evolved to describe the very fine prickly structures seen on certain plant surfaces.
Botanists discovered that some plants have such tiny prickles they're almost invisible to the naked eye—so they needed a word more specific than 'prickly.' This term is the linguistic equivalent of zooming in on a microscope and saying 'whoa, there are tiny needles EVERYWHERE.'
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