Acanthus (plural: acanthus, rarely acanthuses in English, or acanthi in Latin), its feminine form acantha (plural: acanthae), the
Latinised form of the
ancient Greek word acanthos or akanthos, or the prefix acantho-, may refer to:
Biology
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Acanthus (plant)
''Acanthus'' is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Acanthaceae, native to tropical and warm temperate regions, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean Basin and Asia. This flowering plant is nectar produ ...
, a genus containing plants used for ornament and in traditional medicine
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Acanthus, an
entomological term for a thorn-like projection on an insect, typically a single-celled cuticular growth without tormogen (socket) or sensory cells
Mythology
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Acantha
Acantha (Ancient Greek: , English translation: "thorn") is often claimed to be a minor character in Greek mythology whose metamorphosis was the origin of the '' Acanthus'' plant.Coulter, Charles Russell and Turner, Patricia (2000). ''Encycloped ...
, a figure in Greek mythology associated with the Acanthus plant
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Acanthus, son of Autonous who received his name after the plant, which was common in his infertile homeland
People
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Acanthus of Sparta, an ancient athlete
*Acanthus, the pen-name of the cartoonist
Frank Hoar
Places
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Acanthus, Ontario, a modern Canadian town
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Acanthus (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, near Bybassus
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Acanthus (Egypt) Acanthus (Greek: ; in Ptolemy, ) was an ancient city of Egypt, on the western bank of the Nile, 120 stadia south of Memphis. Ptol. iv. 5. § 55. Its site is located at the modern village of Dahshur. The town was in the Memphite Nome, and, therefo ...
, an ancient Egyptian city
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Akanthos (Greece), an ancient Macedonian city
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Acantha, County Offaly, a townland in the civil parish of
Durrow, barony of Ballycowan, Ireland
Other uses
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Acanthus (ornament), a form in architecture and in leather carving, from the plant
*Acanthus path, a fictional tradition of enchanters, magicians and witches in the game ''
Mage: The Awakening''
See also
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List of commonly used taxonomic affixes
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