Argo naut, argonaut, argonaut a

[In Fr. Argonaute; Sp. & Port. (pl.) Argonaut as; Ital. (pl.) Argonaut i; Lat. (sing.) Argonaut a Gr. ̓Αργοναύτης ( Argon a utes ); ̓Αργώ ( Argō ), the ship so called, and αύτης ( nautēs ) = a sailor; from ναῦς (naus) = a ship.] A. Of the form Argonaut (Argonaut in the singular, and Argonauts in the plural): 1. Argonaut: One of the heroes who accompanied Jason in the ship Argo when he sailed on his mythic voyage in quest of the "golden fleece." (Generally used in the plural, Ar gonauts .) where the boxing contest took place between the King Amycus and the Argonaut Pollux."-Grote: Hist . Greece, pt. i., chap. xiii. this was a signal to the Argonauts."-Ibid. 2. A cephalopod mollusc. [B., ARGONAUT A.] B. Of the form Argonaut a: A genus of cephalopod molluscs, the typical one of the family Argonautidæ. The best known species is the Argonaut, or Paper Sailor. The shell is thin ARGONAUT. and translucent. Aristotle supposed that it floated with the concave side up, the animal holding out its arms, after the manner of sails, to catch the breeze. Poets have ever since repeated the fable; but naturalists know that when the Argonaut floats the sail-shaped arms are appli d closely to the sides of the shell, and when the animal crawls at the bottom the so-called boat is reversed like the shell of a snail. In 1875, Tate estimated the known species at four recent and two fo il, the latter being from the tertiary rocks.