virgan.

1908 R. Dunstan Cycl. Dict. Music 439/2 Virga, one of the signs in Neum notation.

1925 R. Dunstan Cycl. Dict. Music (ed. 4) 555/2 Virga (L.) ‘A twig’. A square note with a stem or tail... The plainsong Virga is interpreted as a quaver.

1948 M. Pierek Song of Church vii. 213 Among the Latin neums ten have Greek names.., while eight have Latin names, clivis, pes, punctum, virga, torculus, [etc.].

1954 A. Hughes Early Medieval Music xi. 380 The essential difference between the pre-Franconian mensural notation..and the modal notation which preceded it lies in the fact that there is a definite sign (..the virga of plainsong) for a long note.

1978 Gramophone Aug. 365/2 But worst of all, these singers had introduced a new notion of their own, gleaned from goodness knows where, the idea that every virga is a long note, worth two beats.

1947 M. A. Garbell Trop. & Equatorial Meteorol. iii. 48/1 Streaks of falling cloud mass, or virgae.., are then observed under that part of the cloud base where showers are occurring.

1959 R. E. Huschke Gloss. Meteorol. 611 Virga is frequently seen trailing from altocumulus and altostratus clouds.

1968 New Scientist 4 Jan. 22/1 (caption) An untreated cap cloud which characteristically has little if any virga or snow plumes.

1979 L. J. Battan Fund. Meteorol. viii. 151 When the water or ice particles evaporate before reaching the ground, the precipitation is called virga.