‖ cancelli, n. pl.
(kænˈsɛlaɪ)
[L. cancelli crossing bars, gratings, lattice, railings, pl. of cancellus, dim. of cancer, pl. cancri crossing bars, grating.]
1. Bars of lattice-work; spec. the latticed screen between the choir and body of the church; hence the chancel (mod.F. cancel) so railed off. (Hardly in Eng. use.)
| 1642 Jer. Taylor Episc. (1647) 247 S. Ambrose his sending his Deacon to the Emperour, to desire him to goe forth of the Cancelli. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 27 The Altar is inclos'd with Cancelli. |
2. Phys. ‘The lattice-work of the spongy portion of bones, consisting of thin plates and bars interlacing with each other, and forming arches and buttresses in the direction of greatest pressure’. Syd. Soc. Lex.
| 1802 Med. Jrnl. VIII. 371 The bone of the cavity of the tympanum in the cetacea..shewing no vestige of fibres, cancelli, or vessels. 1871 Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. XII. 25 The cancelli..always run parallel with the axis of the bone. |
¶ b. Improperly applied to the interstices between these bars and plates of bones. (Probably first extended to the whole cancellous or cancellated tissue, including the interstices, and then carelessly misapplied to the latter.)
| 1845 Todd & Bowman Phys. Anat. I. 80 In the cancelli of bones there is a large deposit of fat. 1854 Owen in Circ. Sc. (c. 1865) II. 47/2 Mere cancelli, or small medullary cavities. 1881 Mivart Cat 20 Some bones have their entire substance replete with cavities or cancelli, and such are called cancellated or spongy. |