acephalous, a.
(əˈsɛfələs)
[f. Fr. acéphale or late L. acephal-us (a. Gr. ἀκέϕαλος) + -ous.]
1. Without the head, headless.
| 1731 Bailey, vol. II, Acephalous, without a head. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. Some modern travellers still pretend to find Acephalous people in America. 1774 Cooper in Phil. Trans. LXV. 311, I take the liberty to remit you an account of the delivery of a very curious acephalous monster. 1836–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. II. 219/2 In the true acephalous fœtus the bones of the face..are of course wanting. 1846 Grote Greece I. i. xvi. 592 Without the ancestorial god the whole pedigree would have become not only acephalous, but also worthless and uninteresting. 1854 Badham Prose Halieutics 391 With so strong an inducement for fishmongers to decapitate congers, acephalous specimens would probably be..common. |
2. Having or recognizing no governing head or chief.
| 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Acephalous, in a figurative sense is more frequently applied to persons destitute of a leader, or chief..We find a great number of canons of council..against Acephalous clerks. 1857 Sir F. Palgrave Hist. Norm. & Eng. II. 324 Regality was the organic element of the commonwealth..an acephalous body politic was inconceivable. 1858 Gladstone Homer I. 502 The acephalous state of the Elian division of the army. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xv. 267 The tendency to division was strengthened by the acephalous condition of the Courts. |
3. Zool. Having no part of the body specially organized as a head or seat of the brain and special senses. acephalous molluscs = acephala.
| 1741 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Acephalous worms, or what are supposed such, are frequent. 1835 Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. ix. 268 The acephalous or bivalve Molluscans. 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 166/2 The mouth..in the acephalous annelida is directed forwards. 1879 Carpenter Mental Physiology I. ii. §49. 49 The two primary divisions of the [Molluscous] series,—the cephalous and the acephalous. |
4. Bot. Headless, with the natural head aborted or cut off.
| 1880 Gray Bot. Text-Bk. 393. |
5. Wanting the beginning, as an imperfect manuscript; wanting the first syllable or foot of the verse, said esp. of a hexameter beginning with a short syllable.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Acephalus is used in poetry for a verse which is lame or defective, by wanting a beginning. 1841 De Quincey Rhet. 403 (1860) A false or acephalous structure of sentence. |