Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small needlelike structure, such as a copulatory organ in a nematode.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In zoology, a spicula or spicule.
- noun A needle-shaped splinter of bone.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Same as
spicule .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A thrusting
javelin used byRomans that replaced thepilum in the late 3rd century. - noun A sharp, pointed
crystal , especially ofice . - noun zoology A sharp, needle-like structure, especially those making up the skeleton of a
sponge . - noun astronomy A small radial emission of
gas seen in thechromosphere andcorona of thesun .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun small pointed structure serving as a skeletal element in various marine and freshwater invertebrates e.g. sponges and corals
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Rossiter in this autumn of 1917 was extremely interested in certain crucial experiments he was making with spiculum in sponge-cells; with scleroblasts, "mason-cells," osteoblasts, and "consciousness" in bone-cells.
Mrs. Warren's Daughter A Story of the Woman's Movement Harry Hamilton Johnston 1892
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Stream of emotional, creative impulse strong enough and hot enough to thaw the classical icebergs till not a floating spiculum of them is left.
A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century 1886
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After sundry caresses between the two parties, during which they exhibit an animation quite foreign to them at other times, one of the snails unfolds from the right side of its neck, where the generative orifice is situated, a wide sacculus, which, by becoming everted, displays a sharp dagger-like spiculum, or dart, attached to its walls.
Plain facts for old and young : embracing the natural history and hygiene of organic life. 1877
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Refining on the more delicate sound of stipes, the Latins got 'stipula,' the thin stem of straw: which rustles and ripples daintily in verse, associated with spica and spiculum, used of the sharp pointed ear of corn, and its fine processes of fairy shafts.
Proserpina, Volume 1 Studies Of Wayside Flowers John Ruskin 1859
missanthropist commented on the word spiculum
Latin Spike, sharp point or sting.
July 9, 2008