‖ virgula
(ˈvɜːgjʊlə)
[L., small rod or twig, critical mark, dim. of virga twig, rod, wand, etc.]
1. Zool. A small rod-like growth or formation: † a. One of the spines of a ray. Obs.
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. b 5 b, They [sc. rays] take their prey, by hiding themselves in the mudde and putting out their virgulæ, and so alluring the small fishes, comming to them as weeds. |
b. The rod-like axis of a graptolite.
| 1907 Fossil Invertebr. Anim. Brit. Mus. 47 The colony acquired a median supporting rod or virgula; this ended often in a disk. |
2. † a. virgula divina or virgula divinatoria, a divining- or dowsing-rod. Obs.
| 1656 Cowley Pindar. Odes, To Mr. Hobs Note 28 Virgula Divina [see divining vbl. n. 2]. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. vi. §3. 80 It is the onely Plant for the Virgula Divina, for the discovery of Mines. 1674 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 4), Virgula divinatoria, is a Rod of Hazel, wherewith Miners pretend to discover where the Ores of Metalls lie. 1691 Locke Lower. Interest 40 Not of the nature of the deusing-rod, or virgula divina, able to discover mines of gold and silver. |
b. = rod n. 6 b.
| 1826 Peacock in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 411 Of this description are the virgulæ, or rods of Napier, which were formerly much celebrated and very generally used. |
3. a. = virgule 1. rare.
| 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Point, A Point with a Virgula, call'd a Semicolon. Ibid. s.v. Comma. 1934 Priebsch & Collinson German Lang. ii. x. 380 The full stop or, instead, a virgula, i.e. a short slanting strike (/) is used..to mark the end of a sentence or of a portion of a sentence followed by a pause. |
b. Mus. (See quots.)
| 1801 Busby Dict. Mus., Virgula, the name of one of the ten notes used in the middle ages. 1876 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms 450/1 Virgula, (1) The stem or tail of a note. (2) A neume. |