A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Hystrix,-icis (s.f.III), abl. sg. hystrice: porcupine [> L. hystrix,-icis (s.f.III), a porcupine (Lewis & Short); = Gk. “(h)ystrix,-ichos (s.m./f. III), porcupine, Hystrix cristata” (Liddell & Scott)].

NOTE: ‘hedgehog’ (Eng.noun): refers also to “any of various other spine-bearing animals (as the tenrecs or the porcupines)” (after WIII); see hedgehog.

NOTE: hystrix,-icis (s.f.III) never refers to a hedgehog in either Latin or Greek.

       singular    plural
Nom.  Hystrix    Hystrices
Gen.  Hystricis  Hystricum
Dat.  Hystrici   Hystricibus
Acc.  Hystricem  Hystrices
Abl.  Hystrice   Hystricibus

NOTE: Stearn (1996) indicated that ‘hystrix,-icis’ may be a ‘B adjective’ meaning ‘bristly; porcupine-like.’ It is perhaps more likely when this word appears as an epithet that it is a noun in apposition and is to be declined as a noun.

Hystrix,-icis (s.f.III), abl.sg. Hystrice, a genus of mammals: Family Hystricidae, the Old World porcupines, and also Family Erethizontidae, the New World porcupines, families of animals with spiny hairs. Hystrix,-icis (s.f.III), Linnaeus 1758; Order Rodentia.

(botany) Hystrix,-icis (s.f.III), abl. sg. hystrice, Bottle-brush Grass; a genus of grasses > Gk. hedgehog, ‘alluding to the bristly spikes” (Fernald 1950), where the lemmas taper into a long awn (1.5-5 cm).

Citrus hystrix (DeCandolle), ramis spinosissiinis, with branches extremely spinose [i.e. with conspicuous spines]. (Grasses): Aegilops hystrix; Aristida hystrix; Arthratherum hystrix; Asperella hystrix.

[fish] Diodon hystrix, Portupine fish, a fish with spines all over its body.