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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Murex

Murex \Mu"rex\, prop. n.; pl. Murices. [L., the purple fish.] (Zo["o]l.) A genus of marine gastropods, having rough, and frequently spinose, shells, which are often highly colored inside; the rock shells. They abound in tropical seas.

Murex

Venus \Ve"nus\, n. [L. Venus, -eris, the goddess of love, the planet Venus.]

  1. (Class. Myth.) The goddess of beauty and love, that is, beauty or love deified.

  2. (Anat.) One of the planets, the second in order from the sun, its orbit lying between that of Mercury and that of the Earth, at a mean distance from the sun of about 67,000,000 miles. Its diameter is 7,700 miles, and its sidereal period 224.7 days. As the morning star, it was called by the ancients Lucifer; as the evening star, Hesperus.

  3. (Alchem.) The metal copper; -- probably so designated from the ancient use of the metal in making mirrors, a mirror being still the astronomical symbol of the planet Venus.

  4. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of marine bivalve shells of the genus Venus or family Venerid[ae]. Many of these shells are large, and ornamented with beautiful frills; others are smooth, glossy, and handsomely colored. Some of the larger species, as the round clam, or quahog, are valued for food. Venus's basin (Bot.), the wild teasel; -- so called because the connate leaf bases form a kind of receptacle for water, which was formerly gathered for use in the toilet. Also called Venus's bath. Venus's basket (Zo["o]l.), an elegant, cornucopia-shaped, hexactinellid sponge ( Euplectella speciosa) native of the East Indies. It consists of glassy, transparent, siliceous fibers interwoven and soldered together so as to form a firm network, and has long, slender, divergent anchoring fibers at the base by means of which it stands erect in the soft mud at the bottom of the sea. Called also Venus's flower basket, and Venus's purse. Venus's comb.

    1. (Bot.) Same as Lady's comb.

    2. (Zo["o]l.) A species of Murex ( Murex tenuispinus). It has a long, tubular canal, with a row of long, slender spines along both of its borders, and rows of similar spines covering the body of the shell. Called also Venus's shell. Venus's fan (Zo["o]l.), a common reticulated, fanshaped gorgonia ( Gorgonia flabellum) native of Florida and the West Indies. When fresh the color is purple or yellow, or a mixture of the two. Venus's flytrap. (Bot.) See Flytrap, 2. Venus's girdle (Zo["o]l.), a long, flat, ribbonlike, very delicate, transparent and iridescent ctenophore ( Cestum Veneris) which swims in the open sea. Its form is due to the enormous development of two spheromeres. See Illust. in Appendix. Venus's hair (Bot.), a delicate and graceful fern ( Adiantum Capillus-Veneris) having a slender, black and shining stem and branches. Venus's hair stone (Min.), quartz penetrated by acicular crystals of rutile. Venus's looking-glass (Bot.), an annual plant of the genus Specularia allied to the bellflower; -- also called lady's looking-glass. Venus's navelwort (Bot.), any one of several species of Omphalodes, low boraginaceous herbs with small blue or white flowers. Venus's pride (Bot.), an old name for Quaker ladies. See under Quaker. Venus's purse. (Zo["o]l.) Same as Venus's basket, above. Venus's shell. (Zo["o]l.)

      1. Any species of Cypr[ae]a; a cowrie.

      2. Same as Venus's comb, above.

    3. Same as Venus, 4. Venus's slipper.

      1. (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Cypripedium. See Lady's slipper.

      2. (Zo["o]l.) Any heteropod shell of the genus Carinaria. See Carinaria.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
murex

kind of shellfish which yields a purple dye, 1580s, from Latin murex (plural murices) "purple fish, purple dye," probably cognate with Greek myax "sea mussel," of unknown origin, perhaps related to mys "mouse" (see muscle (n.) and mussel).

Wiktionary
murex

n. Any of the genus ''Murex'' of marine gastropods.

Wikipedia
Murex (company)

Murex Limited was a leading British provider of services to metallurgists, smelters and refiners, and welders. It was an original constituent of the FT 30 index of leading stocks on the London Stock Exchange.

Murex (disambiguation)

Murex is a genus of medium to large sized predatory tropical sea snails.

Murex may also refer to:

  • SS Murex (1892) early bulk-oil tanker ship named after the sea snail
  • Murex (company) British iron industry plant firm
  • Murex d'Or Lebanese art prize
  • Murex (financial software) Platform for trading, hedging, funding, risk management or processing operations
Murex (financial software)

Murex S.A.S ( Société par actions simplifiée) is a company specializing in the development of software management IT risk for financial markets. Its headquarters are in Paris.

Murex was founded in 1986 by Salim Edde (a former engineering student at the École Polytechnique).

In 2011, the company Murex became the second biggest French publishing company with software revenues announced €318 million.

Murex

Murex is a genus of medium to large sized predatory tropical sea snails. These are carnivorous marine gastropod molluscs in the family Muricidae, commonly called "murexes" or "rock snails".

The common name murex is still used for a large number of species in the family Muricidae which were originally given the Latin generic name Murex in the past, but have more recently been regrouped into different newer genera.

The word murex was used by Aristotle in reference to these kinds of snails, thus making it one of the oldest classical seashell names still in use by the scientific community.

Usage examples of "murex".

This reference is said to doubtless refer to the islands of the Aegian Sea, from whence many claim , the Tyrians obtained the shell-fish,--the murex and papura, which produced the dark-blue and bright-scarlet coloring materials, the employment of which contributed so much to the fame of ancient Tyre.

There are huge hills of boiled-down murex remains all around the landward side of Tyre, taller than the buildings, which seem to kiss the sky.

Well, they gather the murex, break the shells, extract the fish and dump it in big vats.