internode
(ˈɪntənəʊd)
[ad. L. internōdium (see below).]
1. Bot. That part of a stem or branch intervening between two of the nodes or knots from which the leaves arise.
| 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 486 Canes, so big, that they can make as many Barrels of them, as they have internodes or Joynts. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Carnation, Cutting half thro' a joint, and splitting the Internode upwards half way to the other Joint above it. 1863 Darwin in Life (1892) 314 The climbing of all plants yet examined is the simple result of the spontaneous circulatory movement of the upper internodes. |
2. Zool. and Anat. A slender part (as a bone, or a portion of the neural cord of an arthropod, or of the stem of a polyzoan) intervening between two nodes or joints; each bone of a finger or toe.
| 1722 Quincy Lex. Physico-Med. (ed. 2) 2 Descending over the first Internode of the said Finger. 1744 Parsons Muscular Motion i. 26 note in Phil. Trans. XLIII, That they divide them [muscular fibres] thus into Bladders at equal Internodes, we must deny. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xxxvii. 9 At the union of the [neural] chords..a knot or ganglion is usually formed, and an alternate succession of internodes and ganglions commonly follows to the end. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 73 The Polyzoary is plant⁓like, erect, calcareous, dividing dichotomously, the internodes articulating by flexible chitinous bands. 1885 F. Warner Phys. Expression ix. 155 The individual bones of the fingers and thumb are termed ‘internodes’. |