from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. Any member of the genus Bombyx of true silkmoths, whose caterpillars often feed on mulberries.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A genus of moths, which includes the silkworm moth. See silkworm.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A Linnean genus of lepidopterous insects, now the type of the family Bombycidæ.
- n. In conchology, a genus of pulmonate gastropods.
- n. [lowercase] A wind-instrument of the ancient Greeks, probably sounded by a reed mouthpiece: so called from its shape.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. type genus of the Bombycidae: Chinese silkworm moth
Sorry, no etymologies found.
He describes the silk worm as a horned worm, which he calls bombyx, which passes through several transformations, and produces bombytria.
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson
It's bombyx silk, dyed by Marci of Wauka Valley Farm.
A blend of bombyx silk and merino wool. by cavalaxis at
A skein of gorgeous bombyx silk yarn from Ellen's Half Pint Farm in Norwich, VT:
But the Juillard Dictionnaire Inverse de la Langue FranÃ§aise lists twenty rhymes, among them bombyx, hÃ©lix, prolixe, and strix; and we may add the great name of VercingÃ©torix.
The third American species reared under glass is the following very interesting bombyx: _Ceratocampa (Eacles) imperialis_.
The root of the name is _bombyx_, the Latin for silkworm.
The charta bombycina (bombyx, a silk and cotton paper) was much employed during mediæval periods.
It has been a popular belief, found in every book till 1886 (now entirely disproved, but probably destined to die hard), that the common yellowish thick paper, with rough fibrous edge, found especially in Greek MSS. till the fifteenth century, was paper of quite another sort, and made of cotton (charta bombycna, bombyx being usually silk, but also used of any fine fibre such as cotton).
These wild moths produce a stronger thread, but it is much less smooth than that of the bombyx.