▪ I. cardial, a.1 rare.
(ˈkɑːdɪəl)
[f. Gr. καρδί-α heart + -al1: etymologically irregular.]
Pertaining to the heart; = cardiac A. 1.
| 1868 Duncan Insect. World Introd. 141 The cardial portion of the dorsal vessel. 1887 Sala in Illust. Lond. News 9 Apr. 402 Everyone whose cardial arrangements are not as hard as the nether millstone. |
▪ II. ˈcardial, a.2 Archaeol.
[f. mod.L. cardium cockle, so called from its heart-shaped shell, + -al.]
Of or pertaining to a variety of early Neolithic impressed ware of the western Mediterranean, decorated by patterns made with the edge of a cockle-shell, usu. Cardium edule; also, of or pertaining to the Neolithic peoples who used this method of pottery decoration.
| 1939 V. G. Childe Dawn European Civilization (ed. 3) 338 Cardial, decorated with lines executed with a shell-edge. Ibid. xiv. 242 Pottery..decorated with semi-circles executed in cardial and stab-and-drag technique. 1975 P. Phillips Early Farmers W. Mediterranean Europe iii. 52 Early Neolithic Cardial site at Leucate. 1982 Times 13 Apr. 8/1 The earliest period is marked by the presence of the pottery known to archaeologists as ‘Cardial ware’, because it is decorated with zigzag impressions made by the edge of a shell of the cockle Cardium edule. |