spicula

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word spicula. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word spicula, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say spicula in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word spicula you have here. The definition of the word spicula will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofspicula, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Pronunciation

Noun

spicula

  1. plural of spiculum

Noun

spicula (plural spiculas or spiculae)

  1. A little spike; a spikelet or spiculum.
    • 1738 December, C. Mortimer, “VI. An Abstract by C. Mortimer, M.D. Secr[etary of the] R[oyal] S[ociety] of an Inaugural Dissertation Published at Wittemberg 1736. by Dr. Abraham Vater, F.R.S. Concerning the Cure of the Bite of a Viper, Cured by Sallad-oil.”, in Philosophical Transactions. Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume XXXIX, number 451, London: Printed for T. Woodward, ; and C. Davis ; printers to the Royal Society, →OCLC, page 443:
      He concludes this Diſſertation, by endeavouring to explain the Manner of its [olive oil's] operating, which he attributes to its fat inviſcating Nature, whereby it ſheathes the Spicula of the Poiſon.
    • 1861, Various, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, No. 47, September, 1861:
      And yet Thoreau camps down by Walden Pond and shows us that absolutely nothing in Nature has ever yet been described,--not a bird nor a berry of the woods, nor a drop of water, nor a spicula of ice, nor summer, nor winter, nor sun, nor star.
    • 1906, John Tyndall, Six Lectures on Light:
      Introducing the alum-cell, and placing the coating of hoar-frost at the intensely luminous focus of the electric lamp, not a spicula of the dazzling frost is melted.
  2. A pointed fleshy appendage.
    • 1904, John Morley, Critical Miscellanies, Vol. 1, Essay 5, Emerson:
      Nature 'publishes itself in creatures, reaching from particles and spicula, through transformation on transformation to the highest symmetries.

Latin

Noun

spīcula

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of spīculum

References