nervure
(ˈnɜːvjʊə(r))
[a. F. nervure, f. L. nervus nerve: see -ure.]
1. Ent. One of the slender hollow tubes forming the framework of the wings of insects.
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiii. (1818) II. 347 The nervures are a kind of hollow tube..which take their origin in the trunk. 1846 Dana Zooph. (1848) 155 The ridges of the surface constituting its nervures. 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. vii. 399 The wing is strengthened by radiating thickenings, or nervures, united by delicate transverse ridges. |
2. Bot. A principal vein of a leaf.
| 1842 Brande Dict. Sci. etc. 1848 Lindley Introd. Bot. (ed. 4) I. 263 In order to obviate the inconvenience of using the word nerve, the term nervure is now often substituted. 1861 H. Macmillan Footn. Page Nat. 49 What is called the nervure in the membraneous or leafy species, is nothing more than the stalk itself. |