▪ I. elater1
(ˈɛlətə(r))
[a. (through mod.L.) Gr. ἐλατήρ one who or that which drives.
The adoption of the Gr. word into mod.Lat. (in sense 1) seems to be due to Pecquet (1651), whose English translator, however, usually rendered it by elatery.]
† 1. The expansive or ‘elastic’ property inherent in air or gases; hence, more widely, = ‘spring’, ‘elasticity’. Also fig.
| 1653 tr. Pecquet's Anatomical Exper. 90 By its [the Atmosphere's] Spontaneous dilatation (which I call Elater) [orig. quem Elaterem nuncupo]. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys.-Mech. xxii. 162 The swelling..and the springing up..were not the effects of any internal Elater of the Water. 1682 Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. (1756) 117 Persons..having the elater and spring of their own natures to facilitate their iniquities. 1711 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1718) 30 Gives 'em a better Tone, or Elater. 1730 Stuart in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 349 The Elater of the Guts. |
2. Zool. Linnæus' name for a genus of beetles (now the family Elateridæ) possessing the power of springing upward from a supine position for the purpose of falling upon their feet; also, a member of this family, a skip-jack.
| 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) 142 The Elater or Skipper Tribe. The Elaters fly with great facility. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. ii. (1879) 31 At Bahia, an elater or beetle..seemed the most common luminous insect. 1873 Blackmore Cradock Now. xxx. (1883) 168 She didn't know an elater from a tipula. |
3. Bot. An elastic spiral filament, or elongated cell, attached to the sporangium or sporecase in certain Liverworts (Hepaticæ), to the spore of Horse-tails (Equisetaceæ), etc., and serving to discharge and disperse the sporules when ripe.
| 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 324 Spiral fibres, called Elateres, within which the sporules are intermixed. 1866 Treas. Bot. II. 641/2 The elaters which accompany the spores are distinct spiral vessels. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 472 Equisetaceæ..spores of one kind, attached to 4 clubbed elastic threads (elaters). |
▪ II. elater2, elator
(ɪˈleɪtə(r))
[f. elate v. + -er, -or.]
He who or that which elates.
| 1818 Richardson, Elater [with example for elater1]. 1847 Craig, Elator. In mod. Dicts. |