tunica

From Latin tunica. Doublet of tunic and maybe distantly related to chiton.

tunica (countable and uncountable, plural tunicae or tunicas)

1. Synonym of tunic (“garment”)
   • 1924, Herbert Norris, Costume & Fashion, London, Toronto, Ont.: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd.; New York, N.Y.: E. P. Dutton and Co., page 180:

     The tunica is made of a very rich material, plain silk or brocade, with an ornamental border, and over it is the paludamentum or semicircular cloak which was coming into very general use at this period. The collar is a separate article, and is of rich embroidery to match that on the bottom of the tunica.

   • 1988, S.P. Somtow, “A Tale of Truffles”, in Aquila and the Sphinx, Wildside Press, published 2001, page 171:

     I was being drawn up into the clouds, and Papinian, who in my vision was wearing a tunica of light, was fluttering about, his butterfly wings flapping noisily.

   • 2020, Rob Steiner, Natta Magus, Quarkfolio Books:

     It was then that I noticed some of them were wearing tunicas.

2. Synonym of tunic (“covering”)
   • 1980, Opera Botanica, page 107, column 2:

     Ecto- and endotunicae thin, hardly discernable as two tunicae in unreleased, unstained asci; without zonation and ring structures; ocular chamber indistinct.

   • 2013, David Maggs, Paul Miller, Ron Ofri, “Development and Congenital Abnormalities”, in Slatter’s Fundamentals of Veterinary Ophthalmology, 5th edition, Saunders, page 21:

     The hyaloid system and its associated vascular tunicas are responsible for providing vascular and metabolic support to the lens during embryological development.

   • 2021, Jacquelyn Banasik, “Alterations in Blood Flow”, in Pathophysiology, 7th edition, Elsevier, Inc., →LCCN, section “Principles of Flow”, page 323, column 2:

     Fig. 15.5 Tunicae of arteries and veins showing the thicker walls of the arteries.

Medical English has naturalized more than a dozen Terminologia Anatomica terms for various tunicae in the human body. These are translingual, as any modern language shares them via international scientific vocabulary.

• ectotunica
• endotunica
• see also the items above at Hyponyms

Borrowed from Latin tunica.

• IPA^(key): /ˈty.niˌkaː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tu‧ni‧ca

tunica f (plural tunica's or tunicae)

1. Roman tunic

• tuniek

Borrowed from Latin tunica. Compare the inherited tonaca.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtu.ni.ka/
• Rhymes: -unika
• Hyphenation: tù‧ni‧ca

tunica f (plural tuniche)

1. (clothing, anatomy, botany) tunic

• tunicati
• tunicato

• canuti, cuntai, cutina, incuta, taicun, tucani

Possibly of Central Semitic origin as Ancient Greek χῐτών (khitṓn), with a metathesis.^[1] Compare Aramaic כִּיתּוּנָא (kittōnā, “tunic”) / ܟܘܬܝܢܐ (kuttīnā, kottīnā, “tunic”), Hebrew כֻּתֹּנֶת (kuttṓnĕṯ, “tunic”); from the word for flax, Aramaic כּיתָּנָא (kittānā, “flax”) / ܟܬܢܐ (kettānā, “flax”), Akkadian 𒃰 (kitûm, “flax”), Sumerian 𒃰 (gada, “flax”), ultimately a substrate word.

However, Etruscan has been suggested as well.^[2]

Compare also borrowed textile terms of unknown origin in Mycenaean Greek 𐀵𐀖𐀏 (to-mi-ka) and 𐀵𐀛𐀊 (to-ni-ja), both descriptions of textile, as well as 𐀶𐀙𐀜 (tu-na-no, “kind of textile”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.ni.ka/, [ˈt̪ʊnɪkä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.ni.ka/, [ˈt̪uːnikä]

tunica f (genitive tunicae); first declension

1. tunic, an undergarment worn by both men and women
2. (figuratively) a coating, membrane, peel
3. (Medieval Latin) a military cloak

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tunica	tunicae
Genitive	tunicae	tunicārum
Dative	tunicae	tunicīs
Accusative	tunicam	tunicās
Ablative	tunicā	tunicīs
Vocative	tunica	tunicae

• tunicātus
• tunicō
• tunicopallium
• tunicula

tunicā

1. second-person singular present active imperative of tunicō

• “tunica”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tunica”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tunica in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• tunica in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “tunica”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “tunica”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Notes: