Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several small nocturnal arboreal primates of the genus Tarsius, of the East Indies and the Philippines, having large round eyes, a long tail, and long fingers and toes tipped with soft disklike pads.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The malmag, an animal of the genus Tarsius: so called from the singular structure of the foot. Two of the proximal tarsals, the calcaneum and the scaphoid, are lengthened into slender rods simulating metatarsals, and bearing the true heel far above an apparent heel at the bases of the toes. The tarsus is thus about as long as all the rest of the foot, and much longer than the metatarsus. The condition of the parts is unique among mammals, though approached in some of the galagos (of the genus Otolicnus). The tarsier is a small nocturnal lemur of slender form, with long hind legs, very long slender tail tufted at the end, fingers and toes padded at the ends like a tree-frog's, and very large eyes. It is arboreal and insectivorous, and inhabits Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra, and some other islands. It is not distantly related to the aye-aye. See cut under
Tarsius .
Wiktionary
- n. Used attributively as a species epithet
- n. An insectivorous primate of the Tarsiidae family, having very large eyes and long feet, native mainly to several islands of Southeast Asia.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. See tarsius.
WordNet 3.0
- n. nocturnal arboreal primate of Indonesia and the Philippines having huge eyes and digits ending in pads to facilitate climbing; the only primate that spurns all plant material as food living entirely on insects and small vertebrates
Etymologies
- New Latin, from French tarsier, from Latin tarsus, from Ancient Greek ταρσός (tarsos, "wickerwork mat"; "broad, flat surface"") (Wiktionary)
- French, from tarse, tarsus (from its elongated ankles), from New Latin tarsus; see tarsus. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Bohol is also home to a tiny, endangered primate called the tarsier -- about the size of a chipmunk -- that hangs out in a jungle preserve where a guide will point out the long-fingered creatures wrapped around stalks of bamboo.”
“The tarsier is a native of the East Indies jungles from Sumatra to the”
“In the caption on another photograph, we learn that the tarsier is a "member of a little-known zoological group called Asiatic profimians," prompting us to wonder whether that group, if in favor of "fimians," is anti something.”
“The smallest kind of tarsier was believed to be extinct until it was found last month on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.”
“It was kind of hard to see the animals at night though I was like “Where the heck is that tarsier?”.”
“A Texas A&M anthropologist has rediscovered a pygmy tarsier in the wilds of Lore Lindu National Park, Sulawesi.”
“Several scientists believed they were extinct until two Indonesian scientists trapping rats in the highlands of Sulawesi accidentally trapped and killed a pygmy tarsier in 2000.”
“I have a tiny picture clipped from a magazine of a tarsier staring with its trademark surprised look at the camera with a big bug sticking out of its mouth.”
“Tisnt teh tarsier wut bees a primate, sumfing liek teh lemur – see pikshurs awn Wikipedia.”
Around the Interwebs - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“Andrew and Ed were very quick to correctly guess that the bizarre animal in question was the tarsier.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tarsier’.
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primates
big ones,small ones,as many as
I can findangwantibo, babacoote, baboon, bandar, bandari, bobbejaan, bonobo, bushbaby, cebid, ceboid, chacma, chimp and 102 more...
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Squirrels! Squirrels! Squirrels!
All squirrels, all the time.
(For a more specific list about the squirrels in my neighborhood, see here.)squirrel, squirrels, pink squirrel, Squirrel Nut Zippers, ground squirrel, Sciuridae, parka squirrel, Rocket J. Squirrel, Rocky the Flying ..., moiré squirrel, suslik, mantled ground sq... and 66 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Flora and Fauna
poa annua, pooka, vole, bestiary, popple, turgor, starling, sharpy, copse, coreopsis, clove, corvid and 348 more...
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Critters
cockle, cicada, appaloosa, brachiopod, bivalve, aye-aye, cygnet, alewife, chamois, ermine, drake, dugong and 381 more...
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You Damned Dirty Ape!
Primates.
lemur, bush baby, galago, tarsier, potto, loris, marmoset, monkey, tamarin, capuchin, squirrel monkey, night monkey and 44 more...
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kamcho_kitty's list
faves
chones, provenience, lemur, cromulent, embiggen, redorkulate, gordita, kugel, wonky, ramekin, santeria, bonobo and 58 more...
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ynaffit's Words
sedulous, vituperative, pullulating, erstwhile, imbroglio, asperity, cynosure, adumbrate, prosopopoeia, peerless, calumny, ague and 272 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tarsier.
Prolagus I have to say it is actually a "fake" story: as far as I know, nobody really thought that cute little beast was extinct. I think the researchers found a good way to get more grants in the future... (there's nothing wrong with that, though) Dec 14, 2008
chained_bear Interesting article here. Dec 14, 2008
chained_bear "'...tell me whether you have brought the tarsier for us to dissect.'
"Stephen shook his head, thinking of the simple-minded little creature that had gazed at him with its huge noctambulant's eyes, sitting just the other side of Ananda's lamp. 'I promised not to kill anything: and indeed, you know,' he said, 'a man would need a heart of brass to kill a tarsier.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 235 Mar 5, 2008