annulus

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English

WOTD – 14 October 2023

Etymology

A drawing of a transverse section through a heart, showing the annuli (sense 2) or fibrous rings around the valve openings.
An annulus (sense 3) of the Sun seen from Chiba, Japan, during an annular eclipse on 21 May 2012.
The annulus (sense 4.1) on the tip of the sporangium of the bonfire moss (Funaria hygrometrica)
An annulus (sense 4.2) on the stalk of a spectacular rustgill mushroom (Gymnopilus junonius).
A geometric annulus (sense 5.1).
In this diagram of an oil well, drilling fluid is pumped down the drill string (“a column of drill pipe”) (purple) and circulates back up the annulus (sense 6; yellow), which is the space between the drill string and the casing or hole. This transmits the fluid and torque to the drill bit.

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin ānnulus, a misspelling of Latin ānulus (“ring, especially one worn on a finger”), from ānus (“ring”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eh₂no- (“ring”)) + -ulus (diminutive suffix).[1]

The plural form annuli is a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin ānnulī.

Pronunciation

Noun

annulus (plural annuluses or annuli)

  1. A ring- or donut-shaped area or structure.
    Hyponym: torus
    • 1761, [Laurence Sterne], chapter IX, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume III, London: R and J Dodsley , →OCLC, pages 29–30:
      But by the knots I am ſpeaking of, may it pleaſe your reverences to believe, that I mean good, honeſt, deviliſh tight, hard knots, made bona fide, as Obadiah made his;—in vvhich there is no quibbling proviſion made by the duplication and return of the tvvo ends of the ſtrings through the annulus or nooſe made by the ſecond implication of them— […]
  3. (anatomy) A ring of fibrous tissue; specifically (cardiology), such a ring around an opening of a heart valve, to which the valve leaflets and muscle fibres of the atria and ventricles are attached; an annulus fibrosus cordis.
  5. (astronomy) A ring of light in a celestial body, especially when caused by an annular eclipse (for example, when the Sun and Moon are in line with the Earth, but the Moon does not completely cover the Sun's disc).
  6. (biology)
    2. (botany) A structure surrounding a sporangium (or part of it) which shrinks and causes it to rupture for spore dispersal; specifically, in a fern: a structure around about two-thirds of the sporangium consisting of differentially thick-walled cells which dry and distort the sporangium; and in a moss: a complete ring of cells around the tip of the sporangium which dissolves to cause the tip to detach.
    4. (mycology) The membranous remnants of a partial veil which leaves a ring on the stem of a mushroom.
  7. (mathematics)
    2. (geometry) The region in a plane between two concentric circles of different radii.
    3. (topology) Any topological space homeomorphic to the region in a plane between two concentric circles of different radii.
      Synonym: cylinder
  9. (technology) In a well such as an oil well or water well: the space between a pipe or tube and any pipe, tube, casing, or sides of a hole surrounding it.
    • 1950 September, “Notes and News: Pneumatic Buffer Stop, E.R.”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 642:
      Pressure balance is obtained by the air pressure in the cylinder operating on a supplementary piston in the buffer piston head, transmitting pressure to a small quantity of oil which is ported to an annulus between the buffer piston seals and the cylinder wall, so that the seal is always under opposing pressures; oil on one side and air on the other.

Derived terms

Translations

ring- or donut-shaped area or structure

References

  1. ^ Compare “annulus, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023; “annulus, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Latin

Etymology

From ānus (“ring”) +‎ -ulus.

Pronunciation

Noun

ānnulus m (genitive ānnulī); second declension

  1. Alternative form of ānulus

Declension

Second-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative ānnulus ānnulī
genitive ānnulī ānnulōrum
dative ānnulō ānnulīs
accusative ānnulum ānnulōs
ablative ānnulō ānnulīs
vocative ānnule ānnulī

Descendants

References

  • annulus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • “annulus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “annulus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
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