segmental, a.
(sɛgˈmɛntəl)
[f. segment n. + -al1.]
1. a. Having the form of a segment (or, loosely, of an arc) of a circle.
| 1837 Fraser's Mag. XVI. 151 Giving its point a segmental sweep from Penlee Point..to the Mew-stone. 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports ii. i. viii. §5. 346/1 This segmental form is better than the straight bit. 1869 Rankine Machine & Hand-tools Pl. N 1, A segmental bevel wheel. |
b. Arch. Of an arch, a pediment, window-head, etc. Hence segmental-arched, segmental-headed adjs.
| 1816 Rickman Archit. in J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 131 A segmental arch has its centre lower than the spring. 1849 Freeman Archit. 350 The segmental arch..is both more horizontal and less elegant than the four-centred. 1851 ― Window Tracery 253 Of Segmental-Headed Windows. Ibid. 254 By a segmental head I of course understand one in which the centre (or centres) is very much below the line of the constructive impost. Ibid. 255 Segmental windows filled with Reticulated tracery. 1867 A. Barry Life Sir C. Barry iii. 84 Angular and segmental pediments. 1867 Church News 31 July 327/2 A small chamber with a segmental arched vault. |
2. a. Of, pertaining to, or composed of segments or divisions. In various applications (Anat., Biol., Acoustics, etc.). segmental apparatus, the brain-stem of a vertebrate.
| 1854 Owen in Orr's Circ. Sci., Org. Nat. I. 172 Giving the first indication of the segmental character of the skeleton. 1856 T. Williams in Phil. Trans. (1859) CXLVIII. 93 Under the appellation of the ‘segmental organ’, accordingly, it is proposed to describe that viscus upon the basis of which..are always ingrafted the true generative structures [in Annelids]. 1870 Everett Deschanel's Nat. Philos. 1067 Index, Segmental vibration, 832. 1879 F. M. Balfour in Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. XIX. 8 The first part of the urino-genital system to develop is the segmental duct (Vornieregang of Fürbringer), which is formed by a groove⁓like invagination of the peritoneal epithelium. 1888 Huxley & Martin Elem. Biol. i. 169 The prorenal (segmental) duct. 1888 [see segmentally]. 1898 Syd. Soc. Lex., Segmental organ, an organ consisting of a primitive epithelium-lined tubule opening at one end on the body-surface, and at the other into the cœlom or body-cavity. It is the type of the primitive kidneys. 1917 [see palæencephalon]. 1974 D. & M. Webster Compar. Vertebr. Morphol. xi. 240 Segmentation in the developing brain is neither as regular nor as apparent as it is in the spinal cord. However, during early development (at least), segmentation can be determined in the basal portion, which is, therefore, known as the ‘segmental apparatus’. |
b. Path. Characterized by segmentation or division into segments.
| 1896 Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 189 Segmental degeneration of the nerves. |
c. Linguistics. Of, pertaining to, or designating the division of speech or (less commonly) text into segments (cf. segment n. 4 c). Freq. in phr. segmental phoneme, a consonant or vowel phoneme, which can occur as one of the units in a sequence of such phonemes.
| 1938 B. L. Whorf Lang., Thought, & Reality (1964) 126 Timbre phonemics (segmental): Table of phonemes. Pattern congruity. Allophones or probitional variants. Allophonic constellation. 1942 C. F. Hockett in Language XVIII. 8 Features..which clearly extend over a series of several segmental groupings are suprasegmental. 1950 R. A. Hall in Ibid. XXVI. 12 Forty-seven segmental phonemes is not an excessive number to posit for a language. 1958 English Studies XXXIX. 104 The segmental sounds are almost exclusively transferred from indigenous languages of the area. 1966 Amer. Speech XLI. 225 Pitch levels are not always suprasegmental features. When they are short enough, they can be considered one of the distinctive features of a segmental phoneme. 1976 Word 1971 XXVII. 57 The speech rhythms and patterns and intonations of the pregnant mother will [not] generate..‘segmental phonemes’, or anything so phonetically sophisticated relatedly. 1981 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics XXVI. 74 The initial portions of the word have the same segmental values and the same relative prominence as the base word. |