plastron

Meaning

Noun

• The nearly flat part of the shell structure of a tortoise or other animal, similar in composition to the carapace.
• A half-jacket worn under the jacket for padding or for safety.
• A man's shirt-bosom.
• An ornamental front panel on a woman's bodice.
• A breastplate.
• A film of air trapped by specialized hairs against the body of an aquatic insect, and which acts as an external gill.

Origin

• From French plastron, from Italian piastrone, augmentive of piastra, from Latin emplastrum ("plaster"), from Ancient Greek ἔμπλαστρον, from ἔμπλαστος, from ἔμπλασσειν.