Gracility is slenderness, the condition of being gracile, which means slender. It derives from the Latin adjective gracilis (masculineorfeminine), or gracile (neuter),[1] which in either form means slender, and when transferred for example to discourse takes the sense of "without ornament", "simple" or various similar connotations.[2]
InGlossary of Botanic Terms, B. D. Jackson speaks dismissively[3] of an entry in earlier dictionary of A. A. Crozier[4] as follows: "Gracilis (Lat.), slender. Crozier has the needless word 'gracile'". However, his objection would be hard to sustain in current usage; apart from the fact that gracile is a natural and convenient term, it is hardly a neologism. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary[5] gives the source date for that usage as 1623 and indicates the word is misused (through association with grace) for "gracefully slender".[5] This misuse is unfortunate at least, because the terms gracile and grace are unrelated: the etymological root of grace is the Latin word gratia from gratus, meaning 'pleasing',[5] and has nothing to do with slenderness or thinness.[citation needed]
In biology, the term is in common use, whether as English or Latin:
Inbiological taxonomy, gracile is the specific nameorspecific epithet for various species. Where the gender is appropriate, the form is gracilis. Examples include:
The same root appears in the names of some genera and higher taxa:
