somatic, a. and n.
(səʊˈmætɪk)
[ad. Gr. σωµατικός, f. σῶµα, σώµατ- body. So F. somatique.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to the (or a) body; bodily, corporeal, physical.
| 1775 Ash, Somatic, corporeal, belonging to a body. 1816 Bentham Chrestomathia Wks. 1843 VIII. 187 Somatic, or Somatological fictitious entities. 1859 Sat. Rev. 10 Dec. 709/1 Those in which somatic and psychical co-efficients are manifestly intermingled. 1884 Blackmore Tommy Upmore I. iii. 23 Variant motions and emotions, both somatic and psychical. |
b. Anat. and Phys. of parts of the body.
| 1859 Huxley Oceanic Hydrozoa 26 The diverticulum of the somatic cavity becomes pyriform. 1861 J. R. Greene Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent. 6 The nutritive, or somatic, fluid occupying the general cavity of the body. 1881 Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. Jan. 73 The two layers of the mesoblast, somatic and splanchnic. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 371 The termination of the somatic nerves derived from the segment of the cord. |
c. spec. Pertaining to the soma in contrast to the germ.
| 1888 Nature 14 June 156/2 In the Metazoa, the germ⁓cells, instead of remaining single, give rise to the vast number of somatic cells which compose the adult structure. 1896 Mrs. Romanes Life & Lett. Romanes 35 It is demonstrated that the somatic tissues of the scion have exercised an effect on the germinal elements of the stock. |
2. Affecting the body.
| 1835–6 J. A. Symonds in Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 791 note, The writer is indebted to..Dr. Prichard for the suggestion of somatic [instead of systemic],..but he has not had the courage to introduce it into the text. 1839–47 Carpenter Ibid. III. 757/2 Molecular death is not always an immediate consequence of somatic death. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 425 Hypnotism could do nothing in somatic affections. |
B. n. pl. Somatology.
| 1816 Bentham Chrestomathia Wks. 1843 VIII. 87 This branch of Art and Science is entitled to the appellation of Coenoscopic Anthropurgics, or Somatics. 1861 Sat. Rev. 15 June 621 The Germans retort by accusing their adversaries..of ‘mechanical, soulless somatics (somatik)’. |
So soˈmatical a., ‘corporeal, bodily, substantial’ (Bailey, 1727); soˈmatically adv.
| 1847 tr. Feuchtersleben's Med. Psychol. 219 Somatically they [i.e. certain excitements] act at the expense of the brain. 1902 Pop. Sci. Monthly Mar. 421 But while the Seri Indians are so well developed somatically,..they have been no less notorious..for unparalleled laziness. |