The hard shell or exoskeleton of a turtle, crustacean, or other armored animal.
From Portuguese 'carapaça,' ultimately from an indigenous American language, adopted into English through contact with colonial traders describing sea creatures and reptiles.
This word reveals how European languages borrowed indigenous American terms for animals they'd never seen before—carapax appears in Shakespeare and Moby Dick because explorers brought back both the word and the wonder of these creatures.
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