cephenes

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κηφῆνες (kēphênes).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [keːˈpʰeː.nɛs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃeˈfɛː.nes]

cēphēnes m pl (genitive cēphēnum); third declension

1. the drones in a swarm of bees
   • 77 CE – 79 CE, Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 11:

     Cetera turba cum formam capere coepit, nymphae vocantur, ut fuci sirenes aut cephenes.

     They begin to take the form of the crowd with the other things, called pupae, such as sirens or drones.

Third-declension noun, plural only.

• fūcī (pure Latin)

• ⇒ Translingual: Cephenemyia

• “cēphēnes”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press