Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A round seal affixed to a papal bull.
  • noun Medicine A large blister or vesicle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An ornament in the form of a capsule or locket, in use among the ancient Romans, who adopted it from the Etruscans.
  • noun A seal attached to a document.
  • noun Any ornament of rounded form, especially if suspended, such as those which are attached by small chains to the Hungarian crown.
  • noun In pathology, a bleb or portion of epidermis raised by the extravasation of a transparent watery fluid, as in erysipelas, etc.
  • noun In anatomy, an inflated portion of the bony external meatus of the ear, forming a more or less well-marked prominence on each side at the base of the skull of many animals, usually constituted by a bulbous tympanic bone. Also called bulla ossea. See extract.
  • noun [capitalized] A genus of tectibranchiate (or pleurobranchiate) gastropods, to which very different limits have been assigned.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A bleb; a vesicle, or an elevation of the cuticle, containing a transparent watery fluid.
  • noun (Anat.) The ovoid prominence below the opening of the ear in the skulls of many animals.
  • noun A leaden seal for a document; esp. the round leaden seal attached to the papal bulls, which has on one side a representation of St. Peter and St. Paul, and on the other the name of the pope who uses it.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A genus of marine shells. See Bubble shell.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine A blister, vesicle, or other thin-walled cavity or lesion.
  • noun archaeology A clay envelope or hollow ball, typically with seal impressions or writing on its outside indicating its contents.
  • noun historical In ancient Rome, a kind of amulet or boss.
  • noun Later, handwritten document from the papal chancellery.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (pathology) an elevation of the skin filled with serous fluid
  • noun the round leaden seal affixed to a papal bull

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin, from Latin, bubble, seal.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin bulla ("bubble").

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Examples

  • A long, simple, sleeved tunic bordered with a purple stripe was the standard uniform for both freeborn boys and girls in Rome, and a protective neck chain called a bulla in the case of boys and a moon-shaped lunula for girls the moon being the symbol of Diana, the Roman goddess of chastity their only adornment.

    Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

  • * Just in front of the bulla is a foramen lacerum medium (f.l. M.), through which no nerve passes.

    Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata 1906

  • The bulla was a small object, enclosed in historical times in a capsule, and suspended round the child's neck.

    The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus W. Warde Fowler 1884

  • Though it is true, they then constituted many things in honor to the women; as to give them the way wherever they met them; to speak no ill word in their presence; not to appear naked before them, or else be liable to prosecution before the judges of homicide; that their children should wear an ornament about their necks called the bulla (because it was like a bubble), and the praetexta, a gown edged with purple.

    The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Plutarch 2003

  • Among the unusual finds extracted by Bar-Ilan University's Gabriel Barkai and his team of students and volunteers is a "bulla," or seal impression, thought to be used to close cloth sacks of silver.

    From On High 2006

  • Among the unusual finds extracted by Bar-Ilan University's Gabriel Barkai and his team of students and volunteers is a "bulla," or seal impression, thought to be used to close cloth sacks of silver.

    Archive 2006-01-01 2006

  • Then they constituted many things in honor to the women, such as to give them the way wherever they met them; to speak no ill word in their presence; that their children should wear an ornament about their necks called the "bulla" (because it was like a bubble), and the "praetexta," a gown edged with purple.

    The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch; being parts of the "Lives" of Plutarch, edited for boys and girls 46-120? Plutarch 1884

  • It's no wonder that people such as Francisco Rodríguez are calling the government's bluff and framing the achievements of the government's social programs as more "bulla" than "cabuya".

    Caracas Chronicles 2009

  • The other item was a 'bulla' or a type of amulet [pictured left], discovered by Glen Camley, an amateur metal detector, on farmland at Inch near Downpatrick.

    Slugger O'Toole 2009

  • The Coroner also ruled yesterday that a separate find of a gold Bronze Age purse or 'bulla' should be considered a treasure.

    Belfasttelegraph.co.uk - Frontpage RSS Feed 2009

Comments

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  • Fancy name for a blister.

    December 22, 2007