thymusn.
/ˈθʌɪməs/, U.S. /ˈθaɪməs/ 1.
a. Anatomy. A glandular body of obscure function (one of the so-called ‘ductless glands’) situated near the base of the neck in vertebrate animals; in man usually disappearing after the period of childhood.In the calf and lamb called by butchers sweetbread, or more precisely neck or throat sweetbread, for distinction from the pancreas or stomach sweetbread.
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the world > life > the body > secretory organs > gland > specific glands > [noun] > thymus gland
thymus1684
thymus gland (rarely body)1776
1684 tr. S. Blankaart Physical Dict. 281 Thymus is a Glandule in the Throat, which separates watry Humour, called Lympha, from the Blood, and empties it by the Lymphatick Vessels.
1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I Thymus, is a conglobate Glandule in the Throat, growing to the upper part of the Mediastinum, and seated between the Divisions of the Subclavian Veins and Arteries.
1713 W. Cheselden Anat. Humane Body iii. x. 128 At the upper part of the Cavity of the Thorax..is seated the Gland Thymus.
1868 R. Owen On Anat. Vertebr. III. xxxii. 567 The thymus in Monotremes lies between the episternum and the beginnings of the vessels from the aortic arch.
1881 St. G. Mivart Cat 237 The thymus..is of very large size during immaturity.
1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 350 The thymus atrophies in the higher Vertebrata as a rule.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VI. 89 Several instances of enlarged thymus have been reported of late years.
1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 10 Sept. 603 It is possible..that a similar extract prepared from human thymi would have a depressor action.
b. Now usually thymus gland (rarely body).
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the world > life > the body > secretory organs > gland > specific glands > [noun] > thymus gland
thymus1684
thymus gland (rarely body)1776
1776 M. Falconer (title) An Account of the Structure and Offices..of the Thymus Glands.
1797 M. Baillie Morbid Anat. (ed. 2) v. 110 The thymus gland is subject to few diseases in itself, and is only of temporary existence.
1843 W. Youatt Horse (new ed.) xi. 231 It is ‘the thymus gland’, or, in vulgar language, the sweet-bread.
1862 W. A. Miller Elements Chem. (ed. 2) III. 722 Hypoxanthine has also been found in the thyroid or thymus glands.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VI. 73 Abscesses beginning in the thymus body.
c. thymus nucleic acid = thymo-nucleic acid at thymo-nucleic adj. Now Historical.
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1904 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 86 i. 837 (heading) Thymus nucleic acid.
1938 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 1722 Secondly there are deoxyribonucleic acids, in which the sugar component is d-2-deoxyribose and of which ‘thymus nucleic acid’ is the classical example.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > blemish > [noun] > wart
wartc725
porre?a1425
wrat1527
chit1552
verruca1565
fig1600
thyme wart1601
soft wart1610
rouncival1655
wartle1659
clavicle1661
thymus1684
warting1756
1684 tr. S. Blankaart Physical Dict. 281 Thymus,..also a fleshy Tumor that hangs upon the Body like a Wart, of a colour like the Flower of Time.
1811 in R. Hooper Quincy's Lexicon-medicum (new ed.)
Compounds
thymus-dependent adj.
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1963 Jrnl. Nat. Cancer Inst. 31 1466 In the thymectomized newborn mouse..re-establishment of immunologic competence..is also known to be thymus-dependent.
1977 Proc. Royal Soc. Med. 70 524/2 This change may be responsible for the diminished response to thymus-dependent antigens that is seen in subjects with chronic liver disease.
thymus-derived adj.
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1970 New Scientist 7 May 271/2 The thymus-derived T cells apparently move through the body more actively than the B cells.
thymus-independent adj.
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1974 Ciba Symp. 20 114 They suggest that, by one means or another, trypanosome infections break the control link between thymus-dependent lymphocytes (T cells) and thymus-independent lymphocytes (B cells).
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1912; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1684