Gracility is slenderness, the condition of being gracile, which means slender. It derives from the Latin adjective ''gracilis'' (

masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors ...

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

), or ''gracile'' ( neuter), which in either form means slender, and when transferred for example to discourse takes the sense of "without ornament", "simple" or various similar

connotation A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation. A connotation is frequently described as either positive ...

s. In ''Glossary of Botanic Terms'', B. D. Jackson speaks dismissively of an entry in earlier dictionary of A. A. Crozier as follows: ''Gracilis (Lat.), slender. Crozier has the needless word "gracile"''. However, his objection would be hard to sustain in current usage; apart from the fact that ''gracile'' is a natural and convenient term, it is hardly a

neologism A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...

. The ''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' gives the source date for that usage as 1623 and indicates the word is misused (through association with ''grace'') for Gracefully slender." This misuse is unfortunate at least, because the terms ''gracile'' and ''grace'' are unrelated: the etymological root of ''grace'' is the Latin word ''gratia'' from ''gratus'', meaning pleasing and nothing to do with slenderness or thinness.

In biology

In biology, the term is in common use, whether as English or Latin: * The term ''gracile''—and its opposite, ''robust''—occur in discussion of the morphology of various

hominids The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the ...

for example. * The ''

gracile fasciculus Gracility is slenderness, the condition of being gracile, which means slender. It derives from the Latin adjective ''gracilis'' ( masculine or feminine), or ''gracile'' ( neuter), which in either form means slender, and when transferred for exa ...

'' is a particular bundle of axon fibres in the spinal cord * The

gracile nucleus In neuroanatomy, the dorsal column nuclei are a pair of nuclei in the dorsal columns in the brainstem. The name refers collectively to the cuneate nucleus and gracile nucleus, which are present at the bottom of the medulla oblongata. Both ...

is a particular structure of

neuron A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa ...

s in the

medulla oblongata The medulla oblongata or simply medulla is a long stem-like structure which makes up the lower part of the brainstem. It is anterior and partially inferior to the cerebellum. It is a cone-shaped neuronal mass responsible for autonomic (invol ...

* "

GRACILE syndrome GRACILE syndrome is a very rare lethal autosomal recessive genetic disorder, one of the Finnish heritage diseases. GRACILE syndrome has also been found in the UK and Sweden, but not nearly as much as in Finland. It is caused by a mutation in the '' ...

", is associated with a BCS1L

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, m ...

biological taxonomy In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

, ''gracile'' is the specific name or

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bo ...

for various species. Where the gender is appropriate, the form is ''gracilis''. Examples include: * ''

Campylobacter ''Campylobacter'' (meaning "curved bacteria") is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria. ''Campylobacter'' typically appear comma- or s-shaped, and are motile. Some ''Campylobacter'' species can infect humans, sometimes causing campylobacteriosis, ...

gracilis, a species of bacterium implicated in foodborne disease * ''

Ctenochasma ''Ctenochasma'' (meaning "comb jaw") is a genus of Late Jurassic ctenochasmatid pterosaur belonging to the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Three species are currently recognized: ''C. roemeri'' (named after Friedrich Adolph Roemer), ''C. taqueti'', a ...

gracile'', a late

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 ...

* ''

Eriophorum gracile ''Eriophorum gracile'' is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is known by the common name slender cottongrass, or slender cottonsedge. Eriophorum gracile is a plant with circumboreal distribution, extending south int ...

'', a species of

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...

Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...

* ''

Euglena gracilis ''Euglena gracilis'' is a freshwater species of single-celled alga in the genus '' Euglena''. It has secondary chloroplasts, and is a mixotroph able to feed by photosynthesis or phagocytosis. It has a highly flexible cell surface, allowing it ...

'', a unicellular flagellate protist * ''

Hydrophis ''Hydrophis'' is a genus of sea snakes, venomous snakes in the subfamily Hydrophiinae of the family Elapidae. Species in the genus ''Hydrophis'' are typically found in Indo-Australian and Southeast Asian waters. Currently, around 36 species ar ...

gracilis'', a species of sea snakes * ''

Melampodium ''Melampodium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family. These are rugged plants native to the tropical to subtropical regions that include Central America, Southwestern United States, California, Florida, the Caribbean, and Sout ...

gracile'', a flowering plant species * ''

Moeritherium ''Moeritherium'' ("the beast from Lake Moeris") is an extinct genus of primitive proboscideans. These prehistoric mammals are related to the elephant and, more distantly, sea cows and hyraxes. They lived during the Eocene epoch. Description ''M ...

gracile'', an

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', ...

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur ...

species The same root appears in the names of some genera and higher

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

: * ''

Gracilaria ''Gracilaria'' is a genus of red algae (Rhodophyta) notable for its economic importance as an agarophyte, as well as its use as a food for humans and various species of shellfish. Various species within the genus are cultivated among Asia, South ...

'' is a genus of red algae in the order ''Gracilariales'' * ''

Gracillaria ''Gracillaria'' is a genus of moths in the family Gracillariidae Gracillariidae is an important family of insects in the order Lepidoptera and the principal family of leaf miners that includes several economic, horticultural or recently inv ...

'' is a genus of

leaf miner A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths ( Lepidoptera), sawflies ( Symphyta, the mother clade of wasp ...

moths in the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Gracillarioidea Gracillarioidea is a large superfamily containing four families of insects in the order Lepidoptera. These generally small moths are miners in plant tissue as caterpillars. There are about 113 described genera distributed worldwide, the most comm ...

References

{{Reflist Biology terminology Animal anatomy Morphology (biology)

In biology

See also

References