sigillarian.
/sɪdʒɪˈlɛːrɪə/ Geology.
1. A fossil tree, the leaf-scars of which resemble the impressions of a seal, found chiefly in coal deposits.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > fossil tree or shrub > [noun]
sigillaria1831
sigillarian1870
sigillarid1877
1831–3 J. Lindley & W. Hutton Fossil Flora Great Brit. I. 155 It is extremely probable..that Sigillaria was a Dicotyledonous plant.
1836 W. Buckland Geol. & Mineral. I. xviii. 473 The longitudinal flutings of the trunks of Sigillariæ.
1849 J. H. Balfour Man. Bot. §1183 Some suppose Sigillarias to be allied to Tree-ferns, others to Coniferæ.
1876 D. Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 6) xiv. 255 We may notice the sigillaria, so called from the seal-like impressions on its fluted trunk.
2. [Latin sigillaria.] Roman Antiq. The last two days of the Saturnalia, when little images were given as presents, especially to children.
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1738 Chambers's Cycl. s.v. The sigillaria followed immediately after the saturnalia, and held two days.
1841 Penny Cycl. XX. 453/1 Children generally received little figures, which were called oscilla, or sigilla, from which the last day of the Saturnalia derived the name ‘sigillaria’.
1900 M. B. Huish Greek Terra-cotta Statuettes 214 A part of the Saturnalia at Rome, called Sigillaria, consisted in masters giving their slaves statuettes in wax or clay, and they also offered them as New Year's gifts to their friends.
Derivatives
sigiˈllarian adj. and n.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > fossil tree or shrub > [noun]
sigillaria1831
sigillarian1870
sigillarid1877
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > fossil tree or shrub > [adjective]
sigillarian1870
sigillaroid1879
1870 Geol. Mag. VII. 293 The fossil sigillarian forests of Nova Scotia.
1883 Science 1 523/2 A number of animals entombed in stumps of sigillarians in the coal-measures of Nova Scotia.
sigiˈllarid n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > fossil tree or shrub > [noun]
sigillaria1831
sigillarian1870
sigillarid1877
1877 J. Le Conte Elements Geol. (1879) 316 The Lycopods [were represented] by gigantic Lepidodendrids and Sigillarids.
sigiˈllaroid adj.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > fossil tree or shrub > [adjective]
sigillarian1870
sigillaroid1879
1879 A. Geikie in Encycl. Brit. X. 345/2 Lepidodendroid and sigillaroid plants abound, as well as calamites.
sigi'llarioid adj.
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1870 Geol. Mag. VII. 293 These specimens..probably represented other types of Sigillarioid trees.
1872 H. A. Nicholson Man. Palæontol. 474 The Sigillarioid plants, regarded by different authorities as being Coniferous, or Lycopodiaceous.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1910; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
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