funiculusn.
/fjᵿˈnɪkjᵿləs/, U.S. /fjuˈnɪkjələs/ 1. A hypothetical invisible filament of matter thought to support the column of mercury in a tube inverted in a mercury reservoir. Now historical.The existence of a funiculus was proposed by the scientist and Jesuit priest Francis Line (Franciscus Linus) in his book Tractatus De Corporum Inseparabilitate (1661). His theory was an alternative to that of Torricelli, Boyle, and others, who asserted (correctly) that atmospheric pressure was responsible for the mercury's behaviour. Cf. Torricellian experiment at Torricellian adj.
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the world > matter > gas > air > [noun] > air-pressure > device for illustrating > erroneous hypothesis > string of rarefied matter in
funicle1662
funiculus1662
1662 R. Boyle Def. Doctr. Spring of Air ii. i. 18 in New Exper. Physico-mechanical (ed. 2) The hypothesis that the Examiner [sc. Francisco Linus] would, as a better, substitute in the place of ours, is..briefly this; That the things we ascribe to the weight or spring of the Air are really perform'd by neither, but by a certain Funiculus, or extremely thin substance, provided in such cases by Nature.
1669 R. Boyle Contin. New Exper. Physico-mechanicall: 1st Pt. i. 5 Who attribute the suspension of the Quick-silver in the Torricellian Experiment to a certain rarify'd matter, which some call a Funiculus.
1709 F. Hauksbee Physico-mech. Exper. 71 Where's any room for a Funiculus, that may be imagin'd to be the cause of their Union and Compression?
1865 Jrnl. Franklin Inst. 79 195 Linus proposed his ‘Funicular hypothesis’, which affirmed that the mercury remains suspended in the tube by a ‘funiculus’ or cord of very thin matter.
1965 Philos. Q. 15 32 A funiculus, an invisible membrane or filament, was once postulated to account for the rise of a mercury column in a Torricellian tube.
2004 Hypatia 19 298 The occupant [of the Torricellian space] is the funiculus, a thread formed (Linus suggests from rarefied mercury) as the mercury column dropped.
2.
a. Anatomy. The umbilical cord. Cf. funis n. 2. Now rare.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > membranes, etc., of embryo or fetus > [noun] > umbilical cord
navel-string1587
navel vein1634
umbilicality1658
funiculus1667
funis1727
umbilical cord1753
umbilical1774
1667 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 510 The Oviparous want this Umbilical funiculus, but yet are furnished with fit sanguineous Vessels.
1682 T. Gibson Anat. Humane Bodies i. xxxiii. 187 In the Funiculus are included also two Arteries, which are not both of them together so big as the Vein.
1716 E. Strother Criticon Febrium Introd. 61 Whatever the Posture be, if the Funiculus or Placenta are hanging out of the Vagina, you must deliver by the Feet, unless the Child is fix'd.
1752 tr. L. Heister Compend. Anat. iii. v. 143 [The placenta] is joined to the funiculus, or navel-string.
1887 M. K. J. Rohrer tr. P. Budin in Progress Aug. 75/2 Although the funiculus was not particularly thin, it broke under the influence of uterine contraction.
1931 Anthropos 26 26 Prior to cutting the navel-string, the blood is driven from the placenta towards the child, by running thumb and index along the funiculus.
2016 E. Fulcheri et al. in A. Malvasi et al. Managem. & Therapy of Early Pregnancy Complications iii. 54/1 The gestational sac gives us the chorionic plate with branching villi, the amniochorial membranes and the funiculus and very rarely the yolk sac.
b. Botany. A small stalk connecting an ovule or seed to the placenta of the ovary of a plant; = funicle n. 2.
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the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > seed > [noun] > parts of > funicle
umbilical vessel1731
funiculus1732
podosperm1819
umbilical cord1819
retinaculum1821
funicle1824
umbilicus1837
umbilical bundle1875
1732 tr. H. Boerhaave Elements Chymistry I. ii. 21 The Seed is the embryo of the Plant, it has a Placenta and a Cotyledone or more, which is the Funiculus [L. fune umbilicali].
1830 J. Lindley Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. 111 Ovules ascending from the axis, attached to a short funiculus.
1882 S. H. Vines tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) 492 The nucellus..is seated on a stalk, the Funiculus.
1901 Meyer Brothers Druggist Aug. 246/1 When the seed is ripe it separates from the funiculus and thereby from the maternal tissues.
1960 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 47 464/2 Fleshy funiculi occupy much of the mature fruit.
2009 D. Deardorff & K. Wadsworth What's Wrong with my Plant? iv. 93 (caption) The ovary protects the developing seeds and provides nourishment to the embryo through the placenta and the funiculus.
3. A small rope. Also figurative. rare.
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1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Funiculus, a small Rope, Cord or Line.
1999 New Straits Times (Malaysia) 14 July 7 Rutherford looked up from the page, lassoing, with an inseverable funiculus, my attention to her gaze.
4. Anatomy. A bundle of nerve fibres; (in later use) spec. any of the areas of white matter within the spinal cord.
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the world > life > the body > nervous system > substance of nervous system > [noun] > nerve fibre > band or collection of
file1607
funiculus1824
nerve filament1839
fillet1840
nerve fibril1851
lemniscus1857
nerve cord1864
nerve bundle1865
nerve branch1874
nerve plexus1877
nerve tract1877
neuropilema1891
neuropil1894
fibre tract1904
1824 C. Bell Expos. Nat. Syst. Nerves 12 A simple nerve is where the threads or funiculi which form its root arise in a line or sequence from the brain or spinal marrow.
1851 Lancet 26 July 86/1 In this dense mass several funiculi could be seen terminating in bulbous extremities.
1896 Lancet 15 Aug. 508/1 In one funiculus there were a few minute fibres present.
1928 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 10 Mar. 388/1 The funiculus is a part of the nerve roots subjected to possibilities of very diverse types of lesions, traumatic and arthritic.
1988 M. L. Barr & J. A. Kiernan Human Nerv. Syst. (ed. 5) v. 67/2 The white matter consists of three funiculi.
2011 Jrnl. Neurol. Sci. 300 90/1 White matter in the left ventral funiculus and peripheral nerves at the nerve roots were present.
5. Entomology.† a. A tendon or ligament associated with the posterior thoracic or anterior abdominal segments. Obsolete.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > parts of insects > [noun] > head > antennae > cord through orifice in postfroenum
funiculus1826
1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. III. xxxiii. 389 Funiculus... A small cartilaginous cord, passing through a minute orifice of the Postfrœnum, just above the point where the footstalk is fixed, to an opposite hole above it.
1839 G. Newport in Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. II. 921/1 [The post-scutellum]..is connected at its upper part with a short ligament, or funiculus, that is attached to..the first segment of the abdomen, which it assists to support.
1895 Cambr. Nat. Hist. V. i. 492 The petiole, besides articulating..with the propodeum by means of certain prominences and notches, is also connected therewith by means of a slender ligament placed on its dorsal aspect and called the funiculus.
1912 Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 38 220 The Y-shaped piece together with the tubular membrane and the enclosed muscles make up what is known as the funiculus.
b. In certain hymenopteran insects: the part of the antenna located between the scape and the club; = funicle n. 3.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > parts of insects > [noun] > head > antennae > funiculus
funiculus1831
funicle1869
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > parts of insects > [adjective] > of head > having antennae > having a funiculus
funiculus1831
1831 J. F. Stephens Illustr. Brit. Entomol. IV. 10 Antennæ geniculated, 12-jointed, rather short, and somewhat stout; funiculus 7-jointed.
1893 Trans. Entomol. Soc. London 439 When the antennæ are fully extended, the scape points directly forwards, and the funiculus is curved outwards.
1914 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 66 305 The funiculi of 12 workers of Formica were cut off with a small pair of sharp scissors.
1999 S. O. Shattuck Austral. Ants 33 Second and third segments of the antennal funiculus (counting from the scape) each much shorter than the fourth segment.
2016 B. L. Fisher & B. Bolton Ants of Afr. & Madagascar Gloss. 461 The scape and funiculus meet at an angle so that in life the entire antenna appears bent..between the two sections.
6. Zoology. In bryozoans: a strand of tissue that attaches the digestive tract to the inner body wall and extends to communication pores between neighbouring zooids, facilitating the distribution of nutrients throughout the colony.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > phylum Polyzoa > [noun] > member of > band connecting alimentary canal with parietes
funiculus1856
1856 T. H. Huxley in Trans. Microsc. Soc. London 4 191 In the younger cells of Bugula avicularis, I find that..there is a cord, or funiculus, connecting the extremity of the stomach with the bottom of the cell.
1889 H. A. Nicholson & R. Lydekker Man. Palæontol. (ed. 3) I. xxxiii. 605 This singular connective system, by which the different polypides of the colony are organically united, commences with a peculiar cellular cord, the ‘funiculus’.
1898 A. Sedgwick Student's Text-bk. Zool. I. 553 The testes [of the zooids] are developed either on the upper part of the funiculus, or near the point of attachment of the latter to the body-wall.
1937 Trans. Amer. Microsc. Soc. 56 390 (caption) This section of the funiculus measured 27.2μ in diameter.
1998 L. Margulis & K. V. Schwartz Five Kingdoms (ed. 3) iii. 302/2 Statoblasts develop in summer on the funiculus (a tissue cord connecting zooids) as armored balls of cells.
2010 Biol. Bull. 219 221/2 These pores are plugged with cell complexes that aid in the transport of material through the cells of the funiculus.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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