villosity
(vɪˈlɒsɪtɪ)
[ad. L. type *villōsitās: see prec. and -ity. So F. villosité, Sp. vellosidad.]
1. Bot., Zool., etc. The condition or fact of being villose or villous.
| a. 1777 Lightfoot Flor. Scot. II. 606 This villosity [of the leaf] soon wears off. 1823 Scoresby Jrnl. 414 They differ from both in the form and villosity of the leaves. 1839 Lindley Introd. Bot. (ed. 3) 59 Villosity,..when they [sc. hairs] are very long, very soft, erect, and straight. 1857 Darwin in F. Darwin Life (1887) II. 98, I find Moquin-Tandon treats in his ‘Tératologie’ on villosity of plants. |
| b. 1789 Bentham Princ. Legisl. xvii. 309 The villosity of the skin. 1852 Dana Crust. i. 200 But slight traces of any villosity can be detected. 1861 H. Hagen Synop. Neuroptera N. Amer. 180 Thorax obscure brassy-brown, with brown villosity. |
2. a. A villous formation or surface.
b. A villus.
| 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 229 This villosity is supposed to be composed of tubes adapted to taking up the surrounding fluids. 1857 Bullock Cazeaux' Midwifery 70 Its internal surface..exhibiting granulations, and some extremely delicate villosities. 1879 De Quatrefages' Hum. Spec. 50 The modifications of the hair and villosities. |