trunk (draft)

Дата публикации: Aug 01, 2021 1:25:14 PM

trunk ‎(plural trunks)

(heading, biological) Part of a body.

The (usually single) upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches: the tree trunk.

The torso.

The extended and articulated nose or nasal organ of an elephant.

The proboscis of an insect.

(heading) A container.

A large suitcase, usually requiring two persons to lift and with a hinged lid. [quotations ▼]

A box or chest usually covered with leather, metal, or cloth, or sometimes made of leather, hide, or metal, for holding or transporting clothes or other goods. [quotations ▼]

(US, Canada, automotive) The luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car.

(heading) A channel for flow of some kind.

(US, telecommunications) A circuit between telephone switchboards or other switching equipment.

A chute or conduit, or a watertight shaft connecting two or more decks.

A long, large box, pipe, or conductor, made of plank or metal plates, for various uses, as for conveying air to a mine or to a furnace, water to a mill, grain to an elevator, etc.

(archaic) A long tube through which pellets of clay, pas, etc., are driven by the force of the breath. [quotations ▼]

(mining) A flume or sluice in which ores are separated from the slimes in which they are contained.

(software engineering, jargon) In software projects under source control: the most current source tree, from which the latest unstable builds (so-called "trunk builds") are compiled.

The main line or body of anything.

the trunk of a vein or of an artery, as distinct from the branches‎

(transport) A main line in a river, canal, railroad, or highway system.

(architecture) The part of a pilaster between the base and capital, corresponding to the shaft of a column.

A large pipe forming the piston rod of a steam engine, of sufficient diameter to allow one end of the connecting rod to be attached to the crank, and the other end to pass within the pipe directly to the piston, thus making the engine more compact.

Shorts used for swimming (swim trunks).

Synonyms[edit]

(luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car): boot (UK, Aus)

(upright part of a tree): tree trunk

(nose of an elephant): proboscis

Etymology

From Middle English trunke, borrowed from Old French tronc ‎(“alms box, tree trunk, headless body”), from Latin truncus ‎(“a stock, lopped tree trunk”), from truncus ‎(“cut off, maimed, mutilated”). For the verb, compare French tronquer, and see truncate.

swimming trunks ‎(plural swimming trunks)

A pair of shorts or briefs worn for swimming or bathing.

Synonyms[edit]

bathing trunks

trunks

trunk (n.1)

mid-15c., "box, case," from Old French tronc "alms box in a church," also "trunk of a tree, trunk of the human body, wooden block" (12c.), from Latin truncus "trunk of a tree, trunk of the body," of uncertain origin, perhaps originally "mutilated, cut off." The meaning "box, case" is likely to be from the notion of the body as the "case" of the organs. English acquired the "main stem of a tree" and "torso of the body" senses from Old French in late 15c. The sense of "luggage compartment of a motor vehicle" is from 1930. Railroad trunk line is attested from 1843; telephone version is from 1889.

trunk (n.2)

"elephant's snout," 1560s, apparently from trunk (n.1), perhaps from confusion with trump (n.2), short for trumpet.

truncate verb BrE /trʌŋˈkeɪt/ ; NAmE /ˈtrʌŋkeɪt/

[usually passive] truncate something (formal) to make something shorter, especially by cutting off the top or end

My article was published in truncated form.

a truncated pyramid

Further discussion was truncated by the arrival of tea.

Word Origin: late 15th cent. (earlier (Middle English) as truncation): from Latin truncat- ‘maimed’, from the verb truncare.

Boot and trunk