‖ amˈpulla
Pl. -æ.
[L. ampulla a small nearly globular flask or bottle, with two handles; of doubtful derivation; according to some f. amb- about, or both + olla pot; according to others, a modified dim. of amphora quasi ampholla. Preceded in use by the adapted form ampul.]
1. Rom. Antiq. The ancient vessel mentioned above.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. cxxviii. (1495) 933 Ampulla is a lytyll mesure of lycoure and hath that name as it were Amplabulla, a large bulle, and is lyke in roundnesse to bolk that comyth of the fome of water by entrynge of wynde. 1857 Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) II. 318 The ampulla, a kind of jug, was used for bringing wine to table. |
2. = ampul 2.
| 1598 Stow Surv. (ed. Strype 1754) I. i. xx. 121/1 The Ampulla or Eaglet of Gold, contained the holy oil. 1838 Coron. Serv. in Maskell Mon. Rit. III. 108 The Dean of Westminster taking the Ampulla and spoon from off the Altar, holdeth them ready, pouring some of the Holy Oil into the Spoon, and with it the Archbishop anointeth the Queen in the Form of a Cross. 1868 Stanley Westm. Ab. ii. 92 Busby carried the ampulla. |
3. Biol. Any vessel shaped like the ancient ampulla; the dilated end of any vessel, canal, or duct in an animal; the spongiole of a root in plants.
| 1821 S. Gray Arr. Brit. Pl. I. 49 Ampullæ, Hollow globular bodies found in the roots of some water-plants. 1845 Todd & Bowman Phys. Anat. II. 74 Each semi-circular canal of the osseous labyrinth of the ear is dilated..into an ampulla of more than twice the diameter of the tube. 1879 Calderwood Mind & Brain iii. 73 These enlarged spaces are known as the ampullæ of the canals. |
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Add: [3.] b. ampulla of Lorenzini Ichthyol. [named after Stefano Lorenzini, 17th-cent. It. physician, who described them], each of numerous sensory structures in the head of some fish, esp. elasmobranchs, consisting of small sacs sensitive to electric fields and connected to the surface by narrow tubes; usu. pl.
| [1868 Archiv für Mikrosk. Anat. IV. 375 (heading) Die Lorenzini'schen Ampullen der Selachier.] 1898 Zool. Bull. I. 167 At its inner end each ampullary tube from the surface opens into one of the so-called ampullae of Lorenzini. 1962 K. F. Lagler et al. Ichthyol. xi. 388 The ampullae of Lorenzini..are more or less sac-like structures in the head region of sharks and rays (Elasmobranchii) and also of Plotosus, a southeast Asian catfish. 1975 Nature 31 July 425/2 We have studied the sensory epithelium of the electroreceptor (ampulla of Lorenzini) of the skate. 1975 J. Taylor Superminds vii. 112 The elasmobranchs have electrical sense organs (exotically called the ampullae of Lorenzini) seated in deep skin pores. |