impaler
(ɪmˈpeɪlə(r))
In 7–8 em-.
[f. impale v. + -er1.]
One who or that which impales; applied by Grew to each of the calyx-leaves or sepals of a simple flower, and the bracts or phyllaries of a composite (cf. impalement 2).
| 1671 Grew Anat. Plants i. v. §2 Each Empaler..being as another little Leaf. Ibid., The continuation of all the three aforesaid Parts into each Empaler, is discoverable, I think, no where better than in an Artichoke, which is a true Flower, and whose Empalers are of that amplitude, as fairly to shew them all. 1969 New Yorker 6 Sept. 106/2 Ceau{cced}escu..probably the most popular Rumanian national leader since Vlad IV, called the Impaler, who successfully fought the Turks in the mid-fifteenth century. |