‖ ventriculus
(vɛnˈtrɪkjʊləs)
[L. (in senses 1 and 2), dim. of venter venter1.]
1. Anat. and Zool. = ventricle 3.
| [1693 tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Ventriculus, the Stomach.] 1710 J. Harris Lex. Techn. II. s.v., The Stomach or Ventriculus is placed immediately under the Midriff. 1771 Encycl. Brit. I. 258/1 Ventriculus, or Stomach,..a great bag or reservoir, situated [etc.]. 1843 Wilkinson tr. Swedenborg's Anim. Kingd. I. iv. 109 The stomach or ventriculus is a hollow membranous viscus. 1894 Athenæum 21 April 514/3 The alimentary canal is more of the type of other Gamasidæ than of the Uropodinæ, the ventriculus being small and its cæca long. |
b. The gizzard in birds and insects.
| 1891 in Cent. Dict. 1896 Newton Dict. Birds 916 [The] Stomach..consists of an interior portion, the Proventriculus,..and a posterior, the Ventriculus or Gizzard, which is muscular. |
2. = ventricle 1.
| 1771 Encycl. Brit. I. 278/2 The heart..is hollow within, and divided by a septum which runs between the edges into two cavities, called ventriculi. |
3. The body-cavity of a sponge.
| 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. iii. 115 In the simplest Calcispongiæ..the wall of the ventriculus is thin. Ibid. vii. 409 The anterior end of the ventriculus. |