mastoid, a. and n. Chiefly Anat.
(ˈmæstɔɪd)
[ad. mod.L. mastoīd-ēs, f. Gr. µαστό-ς (woman's) breast: see -oid. Cf. F. mastoide, 16th c. in Littré.]
A. adj. Shaped like a female breast. a. Anat. mastoid process, a nipple-shaped, conical prominence of the temporal bone. mastoid bone, a bone of the skull, in fishes and reptiles, homologous with the mastoid process.
| 1732 Monro Anat. Bones (ed. 2) 100 Into the mastoid Process the Sterno-mastoideus Muscle is inserted. 1841 R. E. Grant Compar. Anat. 84 Anterior to the mastoid bones are the upper portions of the tympanic bones. 1878 A. Hamilton Nerv. Dis. 81 Leeches being applied to both ears, and cups over the mastoid processes. 1880 Günther Fishes 57 The formation..is completed by the mastoid and parietal bones. |
b. Path. mastoid cancer, a kind of firm carcinomatous growth, the section of which is thought to resemble the boiled udder of the cow.
| 1857 in Dunglison Med. Lex. |
c. Lichenology. ‘Teat-like’.
| 1873 W. A. Leighton Lichen-flora (ed. 3). |
d. gen. rare.
| 1877 L. Palma di Cesnola Cyprus ii. 66 A mastoid or breast-shaped hill. |
B. absol. as n. = mastoid process or bone.
| 1842 E. Wilson Anat. Vade M. 24 The mastoid forms the posterior part of the bone. 1846 Owen Compar. Anat. Vertebr. v. 93 The second ring of bones [of a fish's skull]..includes..the ‘parietals’, and the ‘mastoids’. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 45 The method may be supplemented by placing a pole on each mastoid for a few minutes. |
b. attrib. = ‘of or pertaining to the mastoid process’, as in mastoid cell, mastoid muscle.
| 1800 Phil. Trans. XC. 9 The cavity of the tympanum, where the mastoid cells open. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 237 An excess of muscular action, particularly of the mastoid muscle. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 276 The abscess was secondary to mastoid disease. |
Hence ˈmastoidal a., of or belonging to the mastoid process.
| 1831 R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 89 The mastoid process..limited before by the meatus auditorius externus, and behind by the mastoidal suture. 1881 Mivart Cat 66 This triangular tract is the mastoidal region of the temporal bone. |
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Sense B. b in Dict. becomes B. c. Add: [B.] b. = mastoiditis n. colloq.
| 1934 in Webster. 1956 C. P. Snow Homecomings x. 76 He had been trying all ways to get into uniform, but he kept being turned down because he had once had an operation for mastoid. 1987 R. Ellmann Oscar Wilde (1988) i. 10 Even today surgeons use the terms ‘Wilde's incision’ for mastoid. |