lobe

English

Etymology

From Middle French lobe in early 16th century, from New Latin lobus (“a lobe”), from Ancient Greek λοβός (lobós, “the lobe of the ear or of the liver, the pod of a leguminous plant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ləʊb/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊb

Noun

lobe (plural lobes)

1. Any projection or division, especially one of a somewhat rounded form.

   A lobe of lava was crawling down the side of the volcano.

   • 1958, Chinua Achebe, chapter 19, in Things Fall Apart, New York: Astor-Honor, published 1959:

     He then broke the kola nut and threw one of the lobes on the ground for the ancestors.

2. (anatomy) A clear division of an organ that can be determined at the gross anatomy level, especially one of the parts of the brain, liver or lung.
   • 2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.

3. (figure skating) A semicircular pattern left on the ice as the skater travels across it.

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:lobe

Derived terms

Related terms

• lobotomy

Translations

See also

• (brain lobes) brain lobe; frontal lobe, occipital lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe ^{(Category: en:Brain)}

Further reading

• “lobe”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “lobe”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Belo, Bole, Lebo, Loeb, bole

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɔb/

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle French, from Ancient Greek λοβός (lobós).

Noun

lobe m (plural lobes)

1. (anatomy, botany) lobe (of an organ)

   lobe de l’oreille ― ear lobe

Derived terms

Further reading

• “lobe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Etymology 2

Verb

lobe

1. inflection of lober:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

German

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

lobe

1. inflection of loben:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

Latin

Noun

lobe

1. vocative singular of lobus