Venus mercenaria
- noun
- /ˈviːnəs ˌmɜːrsəˈnɛəriə/
- Specialized
:
almeja Venus
- Some Native American tribes used the shells of Venus mercenaria as wampum, a form of currency.
Examples
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Chefs prize the tender meat of Venus mercenaria for use in chowders and other seafood dishes.
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The Venus mercenaria is often found on the Atlantic coast of North America.
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The Venus mercenaria is popular in seafood dishes.
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Many chefs love cooking with Venus mercenaria clams.
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Chefs prize the tender meat of Venus mercenaria for use in chowders and other seafood dishes.
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Some Native American tribes used the shells of Venus mercenaria as wampum, a form of currency.
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Many chefs love cooking with Venus mercenaria clams for their rich flavor.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A large round clam with a hard shell that people eat on the east coast of North America
A large edible American clam with a heavy rounded shell often used in chowder
A large edible clam from the Atlantic coast whose shell was once used as money by Native Americans
A North American clam with a thick hard shell that is eaten as food
A large clam you can eat with a hard rounded shell
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituent elements are taxonomic nouns referring to clams (a genus name + species epithet), so a learner who knows those constituent meanings can infer this is the specific name of an edible clam. Although it is a technical Latin binomial, the compositional pattern (genus + species = a particular organism) is regular and cross-linguistically familiar in scientific naming, making the referent derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Venus mercenaria is the name for a heavy clam from the Atlantic coast, often called the hard clam or quahog. Its thick shells were used as 'wampum', a kind of 'money', by some Native American tribes, so the clam is remembered both as food and for its strong, coin-like shells.