‖ Encrinus Zool.
(ˈɛnkrɪnəs)
Also 8 encrinos.
[mod.L., f. Gr. ἐν in + κρίνον lily. The word was invented by Harenberg (1729) as a name for a fossil which two years before he had proposed to call a ‘stone lily’.]
1. † A name formerly applied generally to fossil crinoids; = encrinite (obs.). b. Now the name of a particular (extinct) genus of crinoids, the type of the family Encrinidæ.
| 1762 [see 2]. 1841–71 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 181 To convert an Encrinus into an animal capable of locomotion. 1851 Richardson Geol. viii. 228 In encrinus, it is composed of different-sized circular plates. |
† 2. Applied to certain extant animals which were supposed to resemble the fossil encrinus: a. The Pennatula Encrinus of Linnæus = the mod. genus Umbellula (class Anthozoa, sub-kingdom Cœlenterata). b. A crinoid described by Ellis as found on the coast of Barbados. Obs.
| 1762 Ellis in Phil. Trans. LII. 358 As it comes nearest to the fossils called encrini..I shall keep to that name, and call it encrinus. 1788 Chambers' Cycl. (Rees), Encrinos. 1819 Rees Cycl., Encrinus. |