sandgroper
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any species of the family Cylindrachetidae of subterranean insects, found in Australia, New Guinea and Argentina.
Example Sentences
- "On both occasions the sandgropers downed the ‘big V’, as indeed they did in 1947 at Hobart when finishing second; the VFL′s only other defeat in 68 pre-state of origin carnival games came in 1911 against South Australia in Adelaide."
- "Leonard not only accepted, he told the club he could help sign several West Australians. The Foreign Legion policy was born and, through Leonard′s personal contacts, South [Melbourne] signed Sandgropers Brighton Diggins and Bill Faul (both from Subiaco) and Gilbert Beard (South Fremantle)."
- "After the race, Damien Oliver added to an already magnificent occasion for David Mueller by spending some time with his fellow Sandgroper and giving Mueller the jockey′s trophy from the race as a memento."
- "The sandgroper is not unique to Western Australia, being found elsewhere in Australia and also in New Guinea,[…]."
- "Most species are small, 4 to 15 mm in length, although some sandgropers (Cylindrachetidae) can reach the length of 40 mm."
- "Sandgropers remain under the soil surface and are only seen when soil is worked or dug."
Etymology
From sand + groper. The sense “Western Australian” may originate either as a reference to the relatively large proportion of desert in the state or to gold mining during the rushes of the 19th Century.