amplexation

From Latin amplexāt-, past participial stem of amplexor (“to embrace”), +‎ -ion.^[1]

amplexation

1. (obsolete, rare) An embrace.
   • 1612–1626, Joseph Hall, “ The Resurrection.”, in Josiah Pratt, editor, The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D.D. , volume II (Contemplations), London: C Whittingham, ; for Williams and Smith, , published 1808, →OCLC, part II (Contemplations on the New Testament), page 511:

     The angels were bright and glorious; thy appearance was homely, thy habit mean: yet, when she heard thy voice, she turns her back upon the angels, and salutes thee with a Rabboni; and falls down before thee, in a desire of an humble amplexation of those Sacred Feet, which she now rejoices to see past the use of her odours.

   • 1654, Thomas RAYNALDE, The Birth of Mankind ... Fourth Edition, Corrected, Etc, page 33:

     [...] blood and the spirit, by mutual amplexations or inbracements of these two vessels, the vein and the arterie being conjoyned and united in one very body, first beginning in the braded body, and then after in the […]

   • 1637, Sermons preached by that reverend and learned divine Richard Clerke published for the common good, by Charles White (printed in London by T. Cotes):

     Truth oft hath approbation, without Amplexation; beleeved, but not embrac't of many. And I will not say, Saint Paul meant not so; though I will not say, he did. The true Amplexation, is the due Application of the saying to our selves, as Saint Paul doth

2. (biology, dated, uncommon) The act of (forming the grip of) amplexus.

   Synonym: amplection / amplexion (dated, uncommon)

   • 1898, Theo. Gill, The tailless Batrachians of Europe, in Science, page 936:

     Amplexation of 'Pelodytes punctatus' Nevertheless, within certain limits, the species of a genus agree in their mode of amplexation; only a too strict taxonomy cannot be applied.

   • 1910, Hugh Chisholm, The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, page 514:

     In accordance with these pairing habits, the pectoral spines of the male , which are used in amplexation, are larger and stronger than those of the female. These fish are monogamous , and both parents remain by the side of the nest, furiously attacking any assailant.

   • 1914, Albert Hazen Wright, North American Anura: Life-histories of the Anura of Ithaca, New York:

     Plate II.—Normal embraces of local species studied. / 1. Mated pair of Bufo lentiginosus americanus. Axillary amplexation. X1. / 2. Mated pair of Rana sylvatica. Pectoral amplexation. X1. […] Plate IV. 1 Cross-embrace of a male Bufo lentiginosus americanus with a dead female Rana pipiens. The amplexation is pectoral, not axillary. X0.5. […] 3. A female Rana pipiens showing the effects of 17 days' pectoral amplexation. X1.

   • 1928, Herbert Eugene Walter, Biology of the Vertebrates: A Comparative Study of Man and His Animal Allies, page 443:

     He remains in amplexation until the female extrudes the eggs, when he immediately sheds the sperm over them. In this way the hazards and uncertainties of distance between the germ cells of the two sexes are greatly lessened. The hylas, or tree […]

• “amplexation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.