medullaryadj.
/mɛˈdʌl(ə)ri/, /mᵻˈdʌl(ə)ri/, U.S. /məˈdəl(ə)ri/, /ˈmɛdəˌlɛri/ I. Technical uses.
1. † a. Designating the soft internal substance or pulp of a fruit. Obsolete.
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the world > plants > part of plant > cell or aggregate tissue > [adjective] > of or having pith or soft internal tissue
pithful1548
pithy1562
fleshy1577
carnous1601
musculous1601
medullary1620
medulline1620
1620 T. Venner Via Recta vi. 99 The pulpe, or medullary substance of the Orenge is not good to bee eaten.
1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs ii. 58 Colocynth, is the dried medullary part of a..Gourd.
b. Botany. Of, relating to, or connected with the pith of a plant; of or relating to the medulla of a lichen or fungus.
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the world > plants > part of plant > cell or aggregate tissue > [adjective] > of or having pith or soft internal tissue > of medullary rays
medullary1830
1830 J. Lindley Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. 331 This thallus is formed of a cortical and medullary layer.
1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 553/2 The rest of the thallus consists of the medullary system.
1911 Forestry Q. 9 244 Pith flecks or medullary spots are small, brown, half-moon shaped patches appearing..on the cross sections of many of our woods.
1926 E. Blatter Palms Brit. India iv. 357 Like the true Sago Palm..the Gomuti Palm affords a medullary substance, from which a meal is prepared.
1967 M. E. Hale Biol. Lichens i. 5 The bulk of a lichen thallus consists of medullary tissue which may be as much as 500 μ thick.
2. Anatomy and Zoology.
a. Of, relating to, or designating the spinal cord, or (now rare) the white matter of the brain or spinal cord; of, relating to or designating the medulla oblongata; of or relating to myelin (chiefly in medullary sheath n. (b) at Compounds).
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the world > life > biology > physical aspects or shapes > specific areas or structures > [adjective] > centre
medullar?1541
medullary1649
medullated1867
the world > life > the body > nervous system > cerebrospinal axis > brain > parts of brain > [adjective] > medulla oblongata
medullar?1541
medullary1649
olivary1844
macromyelonal1868
supraspinal1878
oblongatal1885
myelencephalic1890
1649 W. Charleton tr. J. van Helmont Ternary of Paradoxes 25 The mosse therefore of a scull [hath] received its..Matrix, conception, and increment from the mumiall and medullary substance of the scull of man.
1677 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Oxford-shire 302 His assigning..the Medullary [part of the brain], or Corpus callosum, for the operations of the Phantasie.
1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man i. i. 7 The Nerves arise from the medullary, not the cortical Part, every-where, and are themselves of a white Medullary Substance.
1800 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 91 142 The intermixture of the cortical and medullary substances form the appearance called Arbor vitæ.
1872 A. Flint Physiol. Man IV. i. 21 The medullary substance..is called by various names; as myeline, white substance of Schwann, medullary sheath.
1878 tr. H. W. von Ziemssen et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. XIII. 863 Diseases which are proper to each occur in the medulla [oblongata]. This gives the medullary pathology a very varied character.
1940 S. A. K. Wilson Neurol. II. lxxii. 1176 In the epiblast of the embryo there appears a medullary tube lined by primitive neuroepithelium.
1975 Jrnl. Neurosurg. 43 65 A retrospective survey of 41 patients with unbiopsied thalamic, pontine, and medullary tumors treated with radiation therapy demonstrated 30% to 40% 3-year survival.
1990 Brain 113 50 Patients with cerebellopontine haemorrhages, and with purely midbrain or medullary bleeding, were excluded.
b. Of, in, or derived from bone marrow; designating or containing bone marrow.
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the world > life > the body > structural parts > bone or bones > substance of bones > [adjective] > bone-marrow
marrowy?a1425
medullar?1541
medullous1578
marrowish1612
medullary1704
myeloid1853
myelogenous1875
myelogenic1876
1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I Medullary Oil, is the finer and more subtile part of the Marrow of the Bones.
1715 G. Cheyne Philos. Princ. Relig. (ed. 2) i. vi. 338 That Medullary Substance, that runs down its Cavity.
1747 Philos. Trans. 1746 (Royal Soc.) 44 196 With the exfoliative Trepan, to make a fair Opening into the medullary Cavity of the Bone.
1874 C. H. Jones & E. H. Sieveking Man. Pathol. Anat. 145 If, as occasionally happens, a bony tumour grows inward into the medullary canal of a bone, it is termed an Enostosis.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) v. 109 The medullary or spongy bone..is the store-house from which calcium may be easily again withdrawn to supply the needs of the tissues.
1968 Jrnl. Pediatrics 73 626/2 The bone and joint symptoms occur only in those areas where there is overactivity in the medullary cavity.
1993 Alert Diver Jan. 11/3 Joint pain..has at least three possible origins: neurogenic (from the nervous system), medullary (from the bone marrow), and articular (from the joint).
c. Of or relating to the medulla or central portion of an organ or structure, e.g. of a kidney, adrenal gland, or hair.
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the world > life > the body > hair > parts of hair > [adjective]
medullary1844
1844 W. B. Carpenter Princ. Human Physiol. (ed. 2) 550 Most Human hairs consist of two distinct substances; an external, cortical, hard, and fibrous part; and an internal, medullary, granular portion.
1847–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. IV. i. 233/1 The kidneys of reptiles..have no distinction of cortical and medullary substance.
1907 Med. Rec. (N.Y.) 3 Aug. 188/2 These occur in the medullary substance of the adrenal bodies.
1985 C. R. Leeson et al. Textbk. Histol. (ed. 5) x. 301 The keratin of medullary cells is of the ‘soft’ type.
1991 Lancet 21 Dec. 1572/2 Brightly echogenic renal pyramids are known to be associated with disorders such as nephrocalcinosis and medullary cystic disease.
3. Pathology. Originally (of a neoplasm): resembling brain tissue in appearance or consistency; soft (now rare; cf. encephaloid adj.). Later also: composed of solid masses or sheets of neoplastic cells, with little stroma. Now spec. in medullary carcinoma n. at Compounds.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > [adjective] > cancer > types of
medullary1804
melanotic1829
encephaloid1846
Krukenberg1911
1804 J. Abernethy Surg. Observ. 51 The disease is usually of a pulpy consistence; and I have, therefore, been induced to distinguish it by the name of medullary sarcoma.
1852 J. Miller Pract. Surg. (ed. 2) vi. 139 The medullary and malignant nasal polypi may be regarded as incurable.
1870 T. Holmes Syst. Surg. (ed. 2) I. 564 Medullary cancer at first spreads chiefly through the loose cellular tissue.
1959 Jrnl. Clin. Endocrinol. & Metabolism 19 159 An objection to the use of the term ‘medullary’ may be made on the basis that a tumor so designated should be of soft character, grossly. However, this is also the most commonly used term for a histologically solid type of tumor, often of intermediate malignancy.
4. Relating to the inner part or inmost nature of something. Obsolete.
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the world > existence and causation > existence > intrinsicality or inherence > [adjective]
propera1325
indwelling14..
resident1525
subsistenta1530
corporate1531
immanent1535
intrinsical?1545
integral1551
inexistent1553
internal1564
subjective1564
insident1583
inward1587
inherent1588
imminent1605
inhering1609
intern1612
subjectory1614
intimate1632
inhesive1639
intrinsic1642
implantate1650
medullary1651
implicit1658
inexisting1678
originala1682
indwelt1855
1651 N. Biggs Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeωs ⁋198 This indication is peculiar, naturall, medullary, and intirely proper to it.
1828 J. Fleming Hist. Brit. Animals 553 The whole colour [of a mollusc] is pink, with a dark medullary band.
5. Geology. Designating the inner part of a rock structure. Obsolete.
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1778 W. Pryce Mineralogia Cornubiensis 79 Thus, the medullary or inner part of a Fissure, in which the Ore lies, is all the way environed and bounded by two walls or coats of Stone.
Compounds
medullary carcinoma n. Pathology a carcinoma composed chiefly of solid sheets or masses of neoplastic cells with little stroma (cf. sense 3); spec. a type of thyroid carcinoma derived from the calcitonin-secreting parafollicular cells.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > [noun] > cancer > types of
soft cancer1804
soot-wart?1810
melanosis1826
mastoid cancer1846
skin cancer1847
cancroid1854
epithelioma1872
soot-cancer1878
scirrhus1881
chimney-sweep's cancer1888
peau d'orange1896
pigskin1898
medullary carcinoma1926
1926 Jrnl. Pathol. & Bacteriol. 29 244 The so-called ‘oat-celled Sarcoma’ of the posterior mediastinum is a medullary carcinoma of the bronchi.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) i. xvi. 418 The amount of fibrous stroma of these tumours [sc. carcinomas] varies very considerably. In some it is so slight that the tumours are soft and cellular, and belong to the clinical class of encephaloid or medullary carcinomata.
1977 Surg., Gynecol. & Obstetr. 144 695 In this large series of patients treated for medullary carcinoma of the breast by radical mastectomy, the over-all five year survival rate was 63.7 per cent.
1993 Brit. Jrnl. Surg. 80 8/2 The prognostic value of calcitonin immunostaining in medullary carcinoma of the thyroid.
medullary plate n. [compare earlier German Medullarplatte (1861)] = neural plate n. at neural adj. and n. Compounds.
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the world > animals > reptiles > order Chelonia (turtles and tortoises) > [noun] > member of > parts of > shell or parts of
shell1542
tortoiseshell1601
breastplate1698
plastron1831
hyposternal1835
neural plate1849
nuchal1864
hypoplastron1871
medullary plate1879
neural1888
neural bone1889
1879 Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. 19 422 The medullary plate is just established.
1962 Gray's Anat. (ed. 33) 91 The medullary plate, from which by far the greater part of the central nervous system is developed, lengthens as the embryonic area increases in length and its margins become raised.
medullary ray n. [compare French rayon médullaire (1812)] Botany each of the sheets of tissue in the stem of a dicotyledonous plant that extend radially from the pith to the cortex between the vascular bundles (also called primary ray); (formerly also) †a secondary ray, in the secondary vascular tissue of a plant (see ray n.5 9a) (obsolete).
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the world > plants > part of plant > cell or aggregate tissue > [noun] > tissue > pith or soft internal tissue > medullary ray(s)
insertment1671
ray1675
medullary ray1816
pith rayc1868
1816 P. Keith Syst. Physiol. Bot. I. 333 The divergent layers were at one time, and with some botanists are still, denominated Medullary Rays, upon the supposition of their originating in the pith.
1907 D. P. Penhallow Man. N. Amer. Gymnosperms vi. 88 In the higher Coniferæ the medullary ray is distinguished by the presence of an element which differs materially in its structure from the associated parenchyma cells.
1971 F. C. Ford-Robertson Terminol. Forest Sci. 213/1 The term medullary ray..is now restricted to the parenchyma connecting the primary cortex with the pith.
medullary sheath n. (a) Botany. [compare French étui médullaire (1812)] , (in some higher plants) a layer of cells surrounding the pith of the stem; (b) Histology and Physiology = myelin sheath n. at myelin n.2 Compounds (now rare).
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1816 P. Keith Syst. Physiol. Bot. I. 324 The circular row of longitudinal fibres, known by the appellation of the Medullary Sheath.
1861 Philos. Trans. 1860 (Royal Soc.) 150 617 There is no tubular membrane, medullary sheath, or axis cylinder to be demonstrated.
1884 F. O. Bower & D. H. Scott tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Anat. Phanerogams & Ferns 603 The consequent splitting and disrupture of the medullary sheath.
1939 T. L. Green Pract. Animal Biol. iii. 246 Medullated nerve fibres consisting of a central axis-cylinder surrounded by the medullary sheath and in some nerves by an external sheath or neurolemma.
1995 Physiologia Plantarum 95 379 Part of the 35S translocated was stored in ray cells, medullary sheath cells and/or pith parenchyma cells.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.1620