Definitions

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

  • noun A rooflike structure of the body, especially the dorsal part of the midbrain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as tectorium.

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

  • noun anatomy The dorsal portion of the midbrain, containing the superior colliculus and inferior colliculus
  • noun The interconnected outer surface of a spore.

Etymologies

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

[Latin tēctum, roof, from neuter past participle of tegere, to cover; see (s)teg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin tectum ("roof"), from tegō ("I cover"), cognate with Ancient Greek τέγος (tegos, "roof; any covered room of a house").

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Examples

  • The tectum is a layered structure, with a number of layers that varies by species.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • Before about 1970, most studies involved non-mammals-fish, frogs, birds-that is, species in which the tectum is the dominant structure that receives input from the eyes.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • Reptiles include water snakes, Indian python Python molurus (V), banded krait Bungarus fasciatus, green rat snake Zaocys nigromarginatus, turtles (Lissemys punctatus, Trionyx gangeticus, Kachuga tectum and Hardella thurgi) and monitor lizard Varanus sp.

    Keoladeo (Bharatpur) National Park, India 2009

  • Dómine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo, et sanábitur anima mea.

    Easter cake. Ann Althouse 2008

  • With regard to political theory, the difference between Hobbes and myself, which is the subject of your inquiry, consists in this, that I always preserve the natural right in its entirety [ego naturale jus semper sartum tectum conservo], and I hold that the sovereign power in a State has right over a subject only in proportion to the excess of its power over that of a subject.

    Spinoza's Political Philosophy Steinberg, Justin 2008

  • Verres, against whom Tully so much inveighs, in winter he never was extra tectum vix extra lectum, never almost out of bed, [1419] still wenching and drinking; so did he spend his time, and so do myriads in our days.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Calcium signals monitored from leopard frog optic tectum after the optic nerve has been selectively loaded with calcium sensitive dye

    AAAS Dismisses Blogs - The Panda's Thumb 2007

  • Intrinsecus sunt parietes vndíque de filtro, sed et tectum filtreum est: has domus, dum locum habitandi mutare volunt, vel dum indiuitina expeditione procedunt, ducunt secum in plaustris quasi tentoria.

    The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Mandeville 2004

  • Porrò de Baldakino erat tectum superius, sed alij erant panni exterius.

    The long and wonderful voyage of Frier Iohn de Plano Carpini 2004

  • In 1973 (Science, Vol. 181, p. 1053) I showed that while the tectum was needed to react to moving prey, another visual area processed stationary edges, allowing frogs to dodge stationary barriers and to avoid tumbling into holes in the ground.

    'In the River of Consciousness': An Exchange Heims, Steve J. 2004

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