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re·mor·a

(rĭ-môrə, rĕmər-ə)

Any of several marine fishes of the family Echeneidae, having on the head a sucking disk with which they attach themselves to sharks and other fishes, whales, sea turtles, or the hulls of ships. Also called shark sucker, suckerfish.

[Latin, delay (from the belief that they could slow ships down), from remorārī, to delay : re-, re- + morārī, to delay (from mora, delay).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

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Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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