‖ scapula
(ˈskæpjʊlə)
Pl. scapulæ.
[L. scapula, in class. Latin only pl. scapulæ the shoulders, shoulder-blades. Cf. scapple n.]
1. Anat. a. The shoulder-blade, blade-bone, or omoplate (in man and other animals).
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 26 In the toppe of the shoulder blade, betwene the Processe Acromion, and the supreme part of Scapula. 1615 Crooke Body of Man x. xxiii. (1631) 772 Of the muscles of the Shoulder-blade called Omoplata or Scapula. 1672 Wiseman Wounds i. viii. 72 The other wound under the Scapula was painful. 1808 Barclay Muscular Motions 380 When the scapula is meant to form a steady support for the humerus, its antagonist muscles are made to act with an equal force, or to moderate one another with the steadiness required. 1876 J. S. Bristowe Theory & Pract. Med. (1878) 361 All that part of the back of the chest situated below the lower angle of the scapula. |
† b. scapulæ of the nose = mod.L. scapulæ nasi, ‘the lateral portions of the nose’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
| 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. vii. (1653) 118 The Elegancy of the Scapula of the Nose,..and that beauty which so manifestly appears in the wings of the Nose. |
2. Ent. (See quot.)
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. 369 Scapula (the Scapula). The second joint of the Brachium, answering to the Trochanter in the legs. |