‖ apophysis
(əˈpɒfɪsɪs)
Pl. -es. Also 7–8 apophyse.
[a. Gr. ἀπόϕυσις off-shoot, f. ἀπό from + ϕύσις growth. Cf. Fr. apophyse, also used in English in 17–18th c.]
1. Phys. A natural protuberance or process, arising from, and forming a continuous part of, a bone; esp. one of the processes on the spinal vertebræ.
| 1611 Cotgr., Procés..the Processe, Apophyse, or outstanding part of a bone. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 181 Such [fish] as have the Apophyses of their spine made laterally like a combe. 1753 Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 32 The rocky apophyse of the ear bone. 1847–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 370/2 The paramastoid apophysis is dilated. |
2. Bot. A dilatation of the base of the theca or spore-case in some mosses.
| 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxxii. 493 A kind of receptacle..called by Linnæus Apophysis, by Haller the Disk. 1863 Berkeley Brit. Mosses iii. 22 In an early stage of growth..the apophysis belongs quite as much to the stem as the sporangium. |
3. Geol. A branch from the main mass of an intrusive igneous rock.
| 1888 F. H. Hatch in J. J. H. Teall Brit. Petrogr. 424 Apophysis, a vein or branch from the main mass (boss or dyke) of an igneous rock. 1893 A. Geikie Geol. (ed. 3) iv. vii. 580 All over the world it is common for eruptive bosses of this rock to have a fringe of intrusive veins (Apophyses). 1925 B. N. Odell in E. F. Norton Fight for Everest, 1924 293 Thoroughly metamorphosed and crystalline limestone resting on the schorl granite, which sent off apophyses into it. |