tunicle
(ˈtjuːnɪk(ə)l)
Forms: 4– tunicle, 4–6 -ycle, 5–7 -acle, (5–6 -akyl, -ekil, -ek(k)el(l), -yk(k)il(l), -ycale, tuinicle, twynykil, tunnycall); 4–5 tonacle, (5 -ecle, -icle, -ycle, -ykyl, -ykle, -akle, -ucle, 6 -aculle); (5 tenekylle, -ucle, 6 -acull, tin-, tynacle, -akle, tynnacle, Sc. -akil, -akyl, -akel).
[ad. L. tunicula dim. of tunica tunic.
But it may also represent OF. tunikle for tunike (cf. bouticle, dalmaticle, triacle: see M. Antoine Thomas in Romania XXXIX. 231.]
† 1. A small tunic; also fig. a wrapping, covering, integument. Obs.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 163 As gladde of a goune of a graye russet As of a tunicle of tarse or of a trye scarlet. a 1400–50 Alexander 1547 Doctours & deuynours..tyrett all in tonacles of tartaren webbys. 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 721/28 Hec tunicula, a tunakyl. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Tunicle.., a little jacket or coat. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. 789 The Chaldaick Philosophers bestow upon the Soul, Two Interiour Tunicles or Vestments. 1744 Berkeley Siris §171 This tunicle of the soul, whether it be called pure æther, or luciform vehicle, or animal spirit. |
2. Eccl. A vestment resembling the dalmatic, worn by subdeacons over the alb (and also by bishops between the alb and the dalmatic) at celebrations of the Eucharist.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. ix. v. 595 A prestis westment alhaille, Withe tunakyl [v. r. tynnakyllis] and dalmatyk. 1495 in Somerset Medieval Wills (1901) 330, 2 Tenucles with the hole appurtenances. 1502 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 288 To the woman that maid the frenȝeis for tunycales.., xs. 1536 Reg. Riches in Antiq. Sarisb. (1771) 197 Ten Chesibles..with dyvers Albs and Tunicles. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion (Rubric), Albes with tunacles. 1583 Fulke Defence iv. 132 If the word Deacon, be taken for such an one, as at a popish masse standeth in a disguised tunicle, holding a patten. 1849 Rock Ch. of Fathers i. v. (1903) I. 315 The sleeves of the tunicle were neither so wide nor so long, nor did its skirts reach quite so far down as those of the dalmatic. 1877 J. D. Chambers Div. Worship 54 The Tunicle of the Subdeacon and Dalmatic of the Deacon are nearly identical. |
† b. One vested in a tunicle; a subdeacon or ‘clerk’. Obs.
| 1554 Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden) 56 Item, paid for a tonaculle to cary hally water. |
† 3. A membrane enclosing a bodily organ, part of a plant, etc.; = tunic 4. Obs. (or rare arch.)
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P. R. v. v. (1495) g iv/2, The glasy humour..kepyth the humour cristalyn [of the eye] fro touchyng and sharpnes of tunycles. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. i. ix. 8 The tunicles or rymes of the arteries ben of harder substaunce than the tunicles proceeding from the veynes. 1601 Holland Pliny xiii. iv. I. 387 Some of these stones be..covered with many skins or pellicles, and others with fewer: ye shall have in this Date, those tunicles thicke and grosse; in that, thinner and more fine. 1725 Sloane Jamaica II. 313 The stomach had a very thick inward tunicle. 1912 Nation 5 Oct. 13/1 Our modern doctors apparently leave the tunicles of the brain unpurged. |
Hence ˈtunicled a. nonce-wd., enclosed in or as in a tunicle.
| 1652 A. Wilson Pref. Verses in Benlowes Theoph., The distances of every Sphere Which in full Orbs do move, tunicled so That the lesse Spheres within the greater go. |