alveolar, a. and n.
(ælˈviːələ(r), ˈælviːələ(r))
[f. mod.L. alveol-us the socket of a tooth, in cl. L. a little channel or hollow, dim. of alveus a channel, etc. + -ar. Cf. Fr. alvéolaire.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of or pertaining to the sockets of the teeth, or to that part of the upper jaw, the alveolar arch, in which the teeth are placed.
| 1799 Corse in Phil. Trans. LXXXIX. 216 Both the fangs and the alveolar processes begin to be absorbed. 1872 Nicholson Palæont. 366 The alveolar border of the upper jaw. Mod. The English t and d are not strictly dental, they are alveolar. |
b. Pertaining to or resembling an alveolus in a membrane, air-cell of the lungs, etc. Cf. alveolus senses d, e, f.
| 1848 Quain's Anat. (ed. 5) I. p. cclxxxi, This peculiar character of the mucous membrane, which might be called ‘alveolar’, is seen very distinctly in the gall-bladder;..still more minute alveolar recesses with intervening ridges may be discovered..on the mucous membrane of the stomach. 1882 Ibid. (ed. 9) 228 The flattened cells which compose the basement-membrane may send delicate lamellar processes between the alveolar cells. 1885 E. A. Schaefer Essent. Histology xxv. 123 Section of injected lung, including several contiguous alveoli... Between the capillaries is seen the homogeneous alveolar wall with nuclei of connective-tissue corpuscles. 1889 Cent. Dict. s.v., Alveolar passages, the passages into which the respiratory bronchial tubes enlarge. 1927 Haldane & Huxley Anim. Biol. vii. 153 This, which is called the alveolar air, can be obtained at the end of a deep breath out. |
2. Socket-shaped, having a cylindrical hollow.
| 1858 T. Jones Aquar. Nat. 278 On the other hand, when cylindrical or alveolar it appears to be always more brittle. |
B. n. pl.
1. The alveolar processes of the maxillary bone, in which the teeth are fixed.
| 1874 Dawkins Cave Hunt. vi. 192 The alveolars short, but rather projecting. |
2. Phonetics. An alveolar sound or letter. Cf. apico-alveolar n.
| 1895 P. Giles Man. Compar. Philol. i. v. 68 The sounds called dentals—t, d, th, dh, where th represents not the sound in then or thin but t followed by breath—are in English pronunciation not dentals but alveolars, being produced by the pressure of the tongue against the roots of the teeth. 1910 Encycl. Brit. VII. 725/1 The English d..in phonetic terminology is called an alveolar. In the languages of India..both true dentals and alveolars are found. 1961 R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts xix. 430 This obstruction [in the flow of air] can occur..in the front of the mouth above the teeth, as for the alveolars. |
Hence alveoˈlarity, the quality of being alveolar; an instance of this.
| 1952 A. Cohen Phonemes of English ii. 36 If now we put ‘normal’ [t] against [þ] we find: alveolarity v. labiality. 1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Linguistics iv. 155 The nine separate phonemes..are maintained as distinctive units by six features: plosion, voice, nasality, bilabiality, alveolarity, and velarity. |