Other forms: exoskeletons
An exoskeleton is the hard outer shell that supports a creature from outside. An insect's exoskeleton, shed the exoskeleton, a hard exoskeleton.
It is why insects must moult to grow — the shell cannot stretch, so it has to be shed and replaced, and the animal is soft and helpless until the new one hardens. It also sets a limit on size. Robotic exoskeletons borrow the name and the idea.
1nounexoskeletonA hard outer shell supporting a creature from outside.
“The beetle's shiny black exoskeleton protects the soft body inside.”
exoskeleton is a body structure.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)kelh₁- — to parch, wither
Ancient Greek
σκελετός
New Latin
sceleton
English
skeleton
English, today
exoskeleton
Built from
From exo- + skeleton. skeleton comes from New Latin sceleton, from Ancient Greek σκελετός, the neuter of σκελετός (“dried up, withered, dried body, parched, mummy”), from σκέλλω (“dry, dry up, make dry, parch”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)kelh₁- (“to parch, wither”); compare Ancient Greek σκληρός (“hard”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA