pilus

Borrowed from Latin pilus (“hair”). Doublet of pile.

pilus (plural pili)

1. A hair.
2. (microbiology) A hairlike appendage found on the cell surface of many bacteria.
3. (biochemistry) A bacterial protein that has several biochemical functions

• (hairlike appendage): fimbria

• flagellum
• pilus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Pulis, pulis, pusil

pilus m (plural pili)

1. pilus (bacterial appendage)

pilus

1. inessive singular of pilu

Uncertain. Older sources reconstruct Proto-Indo-European *pilo- (“hair”), with Latin pilleus (“felt cap”), Ancient Greek πῖλος (pîlos, “wool or hair wrought into felt”), Proto-Slavic *pьlstь (“felt”) as cognates,^[1][2] but this is no longer accepted.^[3][4][5]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.lus/, [ˈpɪɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.lus/, [ˈpiːlus]

pilus m (genitive pilī); second declension

1. (anatomy) A hair.

   Synonym: capillus

2. (figuratively) An insignificant amount; iota; least amount

Second-declension noun.

From pīlum (“javelin”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.lus/, [ˈpiːɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.lus/, [ˈpiːlus]

pīlus m (genitive pīlī); second declension

1. A maniple of the triāriī; a reserve company of veteran soldiers.

Second-declension noun.

• pīlum

• prīmus pīlus

• “pilus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pilus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pilus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• pilus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.