‖ patella
(pəˈtɛlə)
[L. patella pan, knee-pan, dim. of patina pan, paten.]
1. Anat. A small movable bone, flattened and convex in shape, covering the front of the knee-joint; the knee-pan or knee-cap.
| 1693 tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Mola, Patella, or Rotula, a round and broad Bone, at the joynting of the Thigh and Leg. 1706 Phillips, Patella,..Among Anatomists, the round, broad Bone, at the joynting of the Thigh and Leg; the Whirl-bone of the Knee. 1840 G. V. Ellis Anat. 622 On each side of the patella is the condyle of the femur. 1854 Owen Skel. & Teeth in Circ. Sc., Organ. Nat. I. 252 The patella [of the lion] is well ossified. 1881 Mivart Cat 109 The knee-pan, or Patella, is a small bone of an elongated oval shape. |
b. transf. In insects, the first joint of the coxa.
2. Archæol. A small pan or shallow vessel; the vessel so called by the Romans.
| [1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. cxxviii. (1495) nn j/2 Patella is a panne as it were an open crocke.] 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. iii. 80 Two brass vessels which..appear to have been Roman Patellae. 1857 Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) II. 331 One is a dish, patera, or patella. |
3. A natural formation of the form of a shallow pan. a. In animals: A cup-like formation; a cotyle. b. In plants: see quot.
| 1671 Phil. Trans. VI. 2165, I have often observed on Plumb trees and Cherry trees; also on the Vine and Cherry-Laurel certain patellae or flat Husks containing worms. |
4. Zool. A genus of Mollusca, containing the common limpet.
| 1753 in Chambers Cycl. Supp. |