- Aciculate - Needle-like; describes structures that are slender and sharp, resembling needles.
- Acuminate - Tapering to a long, pointed tip; describes leaf tips or other structures that gradually narrow to a sharp point.
- Allelopathic - Referring to the production of chemicals by plants that inhibit the growth of neighboring plants, a form of chemical warfare in plant communities.
- Altricial - Describes species in which the young are born or hatched in a very undeveloped state and require care and feeding by the parents. This is common in many birds and some mammals.
- Ambulacral - Relating to the ambulacrum, a structure found in echinoderms like starfish and sea urchins, used for locomotion and feeding.
- Anguilliform - Resembling an eel in shape.
- Anserine - Pertaining to geese.
- Apodiform - Resembling swifts and hummingbirds, often referring to their shape or flight patterns.
- Ardeid - Pertaining to herons.
- Brachyurous - Having a short tail; specifically refers to certain crustaceans, contrasting with those having long tails or extended abdomens.
- Buccal - Relating to the mouth or oral cavity. In fish and some amphibians, buccal pumping is a method of respiration involving the movement of the floor of the oral cavity.
- Bullate - Blistered or having a bubbled surface; often used to describe leaves with a puckered appearance.
- Calcareous - Composed of or containing calcium carbonate, used in describing skeletal structures of some marine organisms like corals and mollusks.
- Carnassial - Relating to the large, shearing premolar teeth found in most carnivorous mammals, particularly well-developed in felids (cats) and canids (dogs), for slicing through meat.
- Caudate - Having a tail or tail-like appendage; often used to describe the extended end of an organ or structure.
- Chelate - Having pincers or claw-like appendages; typical of some arthropods, such as crabs and lobsters.
- Chelonian - Pertaining to turtles.
- Cirrate - Having tentacle-like structures called cirri, which can be used for locomotion or feeding, found in some cephalopods and other marine animals.
- Clavate - Club-shaped; describes a structure that is narrow at the base and gradually widens towards the top.
- Colubrine - Relating to typical snakes, especially those resembling the genus Coluber.
- Columbine - Relating to pigeons and doves.
- Comose - Tufted; having a tuft of hairs, especially at the end of seeds or fruits.
- Cordate - Heart-shaped; used primarily to describe the shape of leaves or other plant parts that resemble a heart.
- Corvine - Pertaining to crows and ravens.
- Cristate - Crested; having a ridge or tuft, often used to describe a prominent or ornamental feature on an organism.
- Cycloid - Having circular or nearly circular form; often used in the context of scales in fish that are smooth and rounded.
- Decumbent - Growing along the ground but with the tips turning upwards; a term used in botany to describe plant growth habits.
- Dentate - Toothed; describes margins with tooth-like projections pointing outward, similar to serrate but with less pronounced teeth.
- Dentigerous - Bearing teeth; used to describe structures or organisms that have teeth or tooth-like projections.
- Digitate - Finger-like; describes structures that are divided into multiple projections or parts, resembling fingers.
- Digitigrade - Walking on the toes, with the heels not touching the ground, characteristic of animals like dogs and cats, which allows for more silent and efficient movement.
- Echinate - Covered with spines or spine-like structures; often used in botany and zoology to describe organisms with a prickly surface, such as echinate seeds or sea urchins.
- Ensiform - Sword-shaped; describes flat, thin structures that are wider at the base and taper to a point at the top.
- Eusocial - Exhibiting the highest level of social organization, with a division of labor not only between reproductive and non-reproductive groups but also among non-reproductive individuals, as seen in ants, bees, and termites.
- Hydrophyte - A plant adapted to grow in water or on a substrate that is at least periodically deficient in oxygen as a result of excessive water content (aquatic plants).
- Falcate - Sickle-shaped; describes structures that are curved and tapered to a point, resembling a sickle.
- Fasciculate - Clustered; describes structures that are grouped tightly together, often in bundles or tufts.
- Fenestrate - Having window-like openings; describes structures with one or more openings or transparent sections.
- Filiform - Thread-like; describes very thin, elongated structures.
- Fissirostral - Having a deep cleft or split in the bill or beak; characteristic of certain birds that feed by capturing airborne insects.
- Fossorial - Adapted for digging; describes animals that live primarily underground and are adapted for burrowing.
- Fusiform - Spindle-shaped; describes structures that are wide in the middle and taper towards both ends.
- Gallinaceous - Relating to chickens and other domestic fowl.
- Glabrous - Smooth; lacking hairs or any kind of surface roughness, used to describe leaves, stems, or skins that are completely smooth.
- Globose - Spherical; describes structures that are almost perfectly round.
- Hastate - Spear-shaped; describes leaves that have a pointed tip and two spreading basal lobes.
- Hirsute - Hairy; covered with coarse, stiff hairs.
- Hygroscopic - Able to absorb moisture from the air; describes certain plant seeds or structures that can absorb water, which often aids in their dispersal or germination.
- Imbricate - Overlapping; describes structures arranged in an overlapping fashion, like shingles on a roof.
- Infralittoral - Pertaining to the area of the seashore that is just below the low water mark, where marine life is abundant.
- Jaculatory - Referring to the action of throwing or ejecting, used in some contexts to describe the rapid release or dispersal of seeds or pollen.
- Lacertilian - Pertaining to lizards.
- Lepidopterous - Pertaining to or resembling butterflies and moths; describes insects belonging to the order Lepidoptera.
- Lunate - Crescent-shaped; used to describe anything that resembles the shape of a crescent moon.
- Mucronate - Ending in a sharp, abrupt point; describes leaf tips or other structures that terminate in a sharp point.
- Murine- relating to or affecting mice or related rodents.
- Musteline - Relating to the weasel family, including animals like weasels, otters, and ferrets.
- Natatorial - Adapted for swimming, often used in a broad sense but can be specific to certain insects.
- Ommatophorous - Having eyes on movable stalks, characteristic of certain mollusks like snails.
- Palmate - Hand-like; describes structures that are divided into sections that spread out from a central point, resembling the fingers of a hand.
- Palmatifid - Having lobes that are split deeply but not completely to the base, resembling the fingers of an open hand.
- Pedunculate - Having a stalk; describes structures that are borne on a stalk or peduncle.
- Palmiped - Having webbed feet; characteristic of aquatic birds, such as ducks and geese, that use their feet for swimming.
- Papillate (or Papillose) - Having small, nipple-like projections; used to describe surfaces that are covered in tiny, rounded bumps.
- Pectinate - Having narrow, closely spaced parallel projections; resembles the teeth of a comb, used for structures like the antennae of some insects or the gills of mushrooms.
- Pediculate - of or relating to an order (Lophiiformes synonym Pediculati) of marine bony fishes (such as a batfish or goosefish) with pectoral fins at the end of an armlike process and part of the dorsal fin modified into a lure.
- Peltate - Shield-shaped; describes a structure that is attached to a stalk in the center rather than the base, like certain leaves or fungal caps.
- Perfoliate - Having the stem pass through the leaf; describes leaves that appear to be pierced by the stem.
- Pilose - Softly hairy; covered with soft, fine hairs.
- Pinnate - Feather-like; describes compound leaves that have leaflets arranged on either side of a central axis, resembling the vanes of a feather.
- Plicate - Pleated or folded; describes structures with folds like a fan or accordion.
- Plumose - Feather-like; characterized by having fine, feathery strands, often used to describe the appearance of certain plants or animal appendages.
- Poriferous - Pertaining to or having the characteristics of sponges (phylum Porifera).
- Pruinose - Frosted; describes surfaces that have a whitish or bluish waxy coating, giving a frosted appearance.
- Punctate - Dotted; describes surfaces that are marked with small spots or depressions.
- Quadrifid - Split into four parts; describes structures that are divided deeply into four segments.
- Reniform - Kidney-shaped; describes structures that are rounded on the sides and concave at one end.
- Repand - Having a slightly wavy margin; describes surfaces with undulating edges.
- Reticulate - Net-like; describes a surface that exhibits a network or mesh of lines, common in the veins of leaves or the pattern on certain animal skins.
- Rugose - Wrinkled; describes surfaces with a rough or wrinkled texture.
- Stellate - Star-shaped; describes structures that radiate outwards in a pattern resembling a star.
- Saprophytic - Feeding on dead or decaying organic matter; describes organisms, especially fungi and some bacteria, that decompose organic material.
- Scabrous - Rough to the touch; used for surfaces that feel coarse or are covered in small, rough projections.
- Selachian - Pertaining to sharks.
- Setose (or Setaceous) - Bristly; covered with stiff hair or bristles, often used to describe the texture of plant stems or animal bodies.
- Soricine - Relating to shrews.
- Spinose - Thorny or spiny; having sharp, stiff points or spines.
- Squamulose - Covered with small scales; applicable in both botanical and zoological contexts to describe surface textures.
- Strigine - Pertaining to owls.
- Talpine - Relating to moles
- Testudinal - Relating to turtles or tortoises, similar to Chelonian.
- Tomentose - Covered with dense, matted, woolly hairs; used to describe surfaces that have a soft, felt-like texture due to fine hairs.
- Tuberculate - Having small, wart-like projections; used to describe surfaces with rounded, bump-like features.
- Tubulate - Having tubes or tube-like structures; can refer to the morphology of certain plants, animals, or microscopic structures.
- Turbinate - Top-shaped; describes structures that are broad at the base and taper towards the top, resembling a spinning top.
- Umbellate - Umbrella-like; describes structures that spread out from a common point, similar to the ribs of an umbrella.
- Umbilicate - Having a central depression or navel-like indentation; commonly used in mycology and to describe certain animal features.
- Unguiculate - Claw-like; describes structures that are narrow and curved, resembling a claw or nail.
- Verrucose - Warty; covered with wart-like growths.
- Villose (or Villous) - Having long, soft hairs; used to describe surfaces that are covered in shaggy or hairy growths, softer than setose.
Monday, February 26, 2024
d100 obscure organic adjectives
Thursday, February 15, 2024
SCIFI races inspired by the undead
Ghost: you are not the original you. They had their brains broiled in the destructive uploading that created an exact duplicate of their soul in silicon. You are not that duplicate either, no you are a copy of a copy of a copy. Your soul is housed in a cheap plastic drone. You have a holographic projector that can laser excite motes of dust into a holographic facsimile of the person whose memories fill your silicon brain. You can fly and interface with the ships technology but the people who manufactured you didn’t deign to give your drone body hands.
Skeleton: The cryopods failed. Most everyone else is dead, they died aeons ago. Those who remain are like you. Your flesh is gone now you are metal bolted to bone, an extensive network of prostheses giving direction to skeletal limbs. Your brain is gone now and the neural implants that store your half remembered life rattle in your hollowed out skull.
Ghoul: You were once a machine. Designed to keep the ship in glorious working order. Time has taken its toll though and factories that once manufactured some of the parts you were designed to use were destroyed. If you couldn’t repair yourself you couldn’t repair the ship. There wasn’t any other choice really. Dense chords of muscle flex your metal limbs and neurons fire in your wetware hard-drive as you go to harvest more meat from the not-passengers. You are a machine no longer.
Mummy: People weren’t designed to live this long, you became quite certain of that at the ripe young age of a thousand something or rather, it has been a loooong time since then. You are one of the original crew of the ship and you have grown bored. Still the thought of offing yourself still seems repulsive to you. And so the claustrophobic medical machines you rely on pump their dry nanite dust through your withered veins, sustaining you for yet another day. Perhaps it's time to shake things up again, you really could use some excitement.
Vampire: Greetings security android no_<ERROR: NUMBER IS TOO LARGE IN INPUTFIELD>, and welcome to your tour of service. You are tasked to abide by the company protocols to maintain safety aboard the ship as we near the Andromeda galaxy. It is your duty to <ERROR: DATA BLOCK CORRUPTED>. You are prohibited from entering a residence without express permission or a warrant. You are equipped with a blood sampler and genetic sequencer to confirm passenger identity in instances where <ERROR: DATA BLOCK CORRUPTED>. You are equipped with a service gun mounted inside your right hand to be used only when <ERROR: DATA BLOCK CORRUPTED>.
Skeleton: The cryopods failed. Most everyone else is dead, they died aeons ago. Those who remain are like you. Your flesh is gone now you are metal bolted to bone, an extensive network of prostheses giving direction to skeletal limbs. Your brain is gone now and the neural implants that store your half remembered life rattle in your hollowed out skull.
Ghoul: You were once a machine. Designed to keep the ship in glorious working order. Time has taken its toll though and factories that once manufactured some of the parts you were designed to use were destroyed. If you couldn’t repair yourself you couldn’t repair the ship. There wasn’t any other choice really. Dense chords of muscle flex your metal limbs and neurons fire in your wetware hard-drive as you go to harvest more meat from the not-passengers. You are a machine no longer.
Mummy: People weren’t designed to live this long, you became quite certain of that at the ripe young age of a thousand something or rather, it has been a loooong time since then. You are one of the original crew of the ship and you have grown bored. Still the thought of offing yourself still seems repulsive to you. And so the claustrophobic medical machines you rely on pump their dry nanite dust through your withered veins, sustaining you for yet another day. Perhaps it's time to shake things up again, you really could use some excitement.
Vampire: Greetings security android no_<ERROR: NUMBER IS TOO LARGE IN INPUTFIELD>, and welcome to your tour of service. You are tasked to abide by the company protocols to maintain safety aboard the ship as we near the Andromeda galaxy. It is your duty to <ERROR: DATA BLOCK CORRUPTED>. You are prohibited from entering a residence without express permission or a warrant. You are equipped with a blood sampler and genetic sequencer to confirm passenger identity in instances where <ERROR: DATA BLOCK CORRUPTED>. You are equipped with a service gun mounted inside your right hand to be used only when <ERROR: DATA BLOCK CORRUPTED>.