Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

Clams, oysters, slugs, snails, cuttlefish and octopuses: these are a few familiar examples of the thousands of species of the phylum mollusca, commonly known as mollusks. These invertebrates are plentiful on our planet with over 100,000 species identified, and more being described every year.

Most mollusks are buttressed and protected by their shells, which the animals construct by secreting a special material from an organ called the mantle. But underneath that protective shell is a soft, unsegmented, and vulnerable body. The 17th century Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, inventor of the modern biological naming system, classified these creatures by their most obvious attribute: mollusk comes from the Latin mollis, meaning "soft."

The word mollusk has some unexpected etymological kin. Consider the term mollify, meaning to soothe, or to calm in temper. Sharing linguistic DNA with mollusk, meaning "soft animal," mollify etymologically means "to soften in intensity."

An emollient is a medicinal agent to soothe and soften living tissue. This word, too, is a sibling of mollusk and mollify by virtue of its Latin progenitor, mollis, or "soft."

Radio Script > Mollusk