Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Belonging to the hedgehog family; resembling a hedgehog.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Of the Hedgehog family; like, or characteristic of, a hedgehog.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or resembling a hedgehog.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ērināceus ("hedgehog").

Support

The word erinaceous has been adopted by Erin McKean.

Help support Wordnik by adopting your own word here.

Examples

  • And while she knows a lot of big words like erinaceous, she's also very good at simplifying them: "Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult."

    Archive 2008-10-01 vonjobi 2008

  • And while she knows a lot of big words like erinaceous, she's also very good at simplifying them: "Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult."

    Redefining the Dictionary vonjobi 2008

  • Where to start ... the first thing I saw that I really wanted (and of course it was sold out) were these hedgehog notecards (so erinaceous!) from Papered Together.

    Renegade Craft Fair Roundup! - A Dress A Day 2007

  • Where to start ... the first thing I saw that I really wanted (and of course it was sold out) were these hedgehog notecards (so erinaceous!) from Papered Together.

    September 2007 2007

  • We've already showed you how easy searching Google's dictionary is: just type, for example, define erinaceous to get a straight-out-of-the-dictionary definition for "erinacious".

    Gizmodo Whitson Gordon 2011

Comments

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  • Erin McKean's favorite word. I myself prefer "hedgehoggy."

    March 14, 2007

  • A parallel here with phascolomian and wombastic.

    March 30, 2008

  • I'd go with tiggy-winkly. Or, since another term for hedgehog is the nicely palindromic gipsy's pig, possibly tziganoporcine. Here is a video of Erin, speaking at that Monterey conference for bigwigs:

    Erin McKean on redefining the dictionary

    July 22, 2008

  • Wordplaywise, what a splendidly apt adoption, erinmcknaceous!
    Recalling The Wordie Banana Song.

    May 27, 2015

  • Though cool at work and perspicacious
    Our Erin provoked turns hellacious.
    Spammers learn quickly
    The lady is prickly.
    Be warned by the page on erinaceous.

    May 27, 2015

  • Ah, I finally see why it's Erin McKean's favorite word. Erin-aceous. That was way too obvious, wasn't it?

    August 23, 2018

  • Lucky! Such a cute word, too.

    August 23, 2018

  • Erin is the perfect name for a pet hedgehog.

    August 23, 2018