Greek ὁλοθούριον, an ethnobiological name for the sea cucumber (Holothuria sp.) - also found in Pliny's Naturalis Historia (as holothurium)- , can be analyzed as ὁλο-θούριο-ν, i.e. either as an adjectival or a nominal endocentric compound with a semantics like ‘(which is) all sexually aroused’ or ‘(which is) all (a) copulation’, figuratively alluding to the shape of Holothuria sp. through the similarity with a penis. Such metaphorical reference to a salient feature of the named organism (a typical pattern of ethnobiological nomenclatures in general), is semantically very close to several modern Mediterranean names of the invertebrate in question.