deciduan.
/dᵻˈsɪdjʊə/, /dᵻˈsɪdʒʊə/, U.S. /dəˈsɪdʒəwə/ Physiology and Medicine.
1. The altered endometrium that lines the uterus during pregnancy, forms the maternal part of the placenta, and is shed at parturition.
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the world > life > the body > sex organs > female sex organs > [noun] > womb > parts of
horn1598
fundus uteri1615
fundus1638
decidua1772
parametrium1878
1772 C. White Treat. Managem. Pregnant & Lying-in Women 110 (note) The third external membrane, which is very spongy, was first discovered by that great anatomist Dr. Hunter, and is by him very properly called decidua, or caduca, as it appears to be a lamella cut off from the internal surface of the womb.
1772 Med. Observ. & Inq. (ed. 2) IV. 267 The vascular membrane that lines the internal superficies of the uterus, to which it properly belongs, the decidua of Dr. Hunter, or the spongy chorion.
1806 Edinb. Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 2 4 At last we come to the glandular portion immediately above the os uteri, which distends very slowly and never forms decidua.
1841 E. Rigby Syst. Midwifery i. iii. 27 To Dr. W. Hunter are we indebted for the first correct description of the decidua.
1882 Proc. Royal Soc. 34 431 The changes taking place in the decidua at the mesometrial side of the uterus depend upon the formation of the maternal portion of the placenta.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) xxxvi. 1004 In the uterus in normal pregnancy it is the thick decidua which seems to limit the invasive power of the chorion.
2015 T. L. King et al. Varney's Midwifery (ed. 5) xxx. 1001/2 Bleeding occurs between the membranes and the decidua and passes through the cervix into the vagina.
2. With distinguishing word. Endometrial tissue somewhat resembling decidua but occurring in a non-pregnant uterus; esp. endometrium shed during menstruation.
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1840 R. Ferguson in A. Tweedie Syst. Pract. Med. IV. 311 Spurious decidua is more readily deposited in utero under certain irritations from a deviation of its functions.
1864 F. Churchill Dis. Women (ed. 5) ii. iv. 211 Ovarian congestion, calling forth a sympathetic growth of the uterine glands, forming a false decidua.
1869 Biennial Retrospect (New Sydenham Soc.) 378 The idea that it is a simple menstrual decidua.
1916 E. B. Cragin Obstetrics xvi. 546 In the menstrual decidua the cells are smaller, the nuclei are less dense and are pyknotic.
2008 D. Haig in S. C. Stearns & J. C. Koella Evol. in Health & Dis. (ed. 2) vi. 67/2 Obstetricians have long recognized a continuum from shedding of the menstrual decidua, through early miscarriages and premature deliveries, to shedding of the decidua with the placenta at a term birth.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1772