Crossword clues for cowry
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cowrie \Cow"rie\ Cowry \Cow"ry\(kou"r[y^]), n.; pl. Cowries (-r[i^]z). [Hind. kaur[imac].] (Zo["o]l.) A marine shell of the genus Cypr[ae]a.
Note: There are numerous species, many of them ornamental. Formerly Cypr[ae]a moneta and several other species were largely used as money in Africa and some other countries, and they are still so used to some extent. The value is always trifling, and varies at different places.
Wiktionary
n. 1 Any of the marine molluscs of the genus ''Cypraea''. 2 The money cowry, (taxlink Cypraea moneta species noshow=1).
WordNet
n. any of numerous tropical marine gastropods of the genus Cypraea having highly polished usually brightly marked shells [syn: cowrie]
Wikipedia
Cowry or cowrie, plural cowries, is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. The word cowry is also often used to refer only to the shells of these snails, which overall are often shaped more or less like an egg, except that they are rather flat on the underside.
Many people throughout history have found (and still find) the very rounded, shiny, porcelain-like shells of cowries pleasing to look at and to handle. Indeed the term "porcelain" derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell (porcellana) due to their similar translucent appearance. Shells of certain species have historically been used as currency in several parts of the world, as well as being used, in the past and present, very extensively in jewellery, and for other decorative and ceremonial purposes.
The cowry was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money. It is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and was collected in the Maldive Islands, in Sri Lanka, along the Malabar coast, in Borneo and on other East Indian islands, and in various parts of the African coast from Ras Hafun to Mozambique. Cowry shell money was important at one time or another in the trade networks of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia.
Some species in the family Ovulidae are also often referred to as cowries. In the British Isles the local Trivia species (family Triviidae, species Trivia monacha and Trivia arctica) are sometimes called cowries. The Ovulidae and the Triviidae are somewhat closely related to Cypraeidae.
Usage examples of "cowry".
Females of the Wimbu tribe of the Andaman Islands pierce their labia and dangle strings of cowry shells from them.
The difficulty of commensuration can exist only in minds obsessed by the atavistic necessity of counting cowries or wives on the fingers.
Perhaps, therefore, instead of eighty, we should read eight hundred cowries to the saggio, which would still leave a profit of cent.
I want the complete range of your local cowries and I want this fish we're after.
I want the complete range of your local cowries and I want this fish were after.
I want the complete range of your local cowries and I want this fish we’re after.
On their arrival the pagazis are paid by the dealers according to contract, which is generally either by about twenty yards of the cotton stuff known as merikani, or by a little powder, by a handful or two of cowries, by some beads, or if all these be scarce, they are paid by being allotted some of the slaves who are otherwise unsalable.
The ladies not unfrequently wore girdles of beads attached to green skirts embroidered with silk and ornamented with bits of glass or cowries, or sometimes the skirts were made of the grass cloth called lambda, which, in blue, yellow, or black, is so much valued by the people of Zanzibar.
Yoke picked out a big whelk, two brown cowries, and two tooth cowries.
Their loot up to this time had not been very impressive, consisting mainly of a few cowries and a weirdly colored fragment of coral for which Malmstrom had gone overboard in twelve feet of water.