Pl. vertebræ; also 7–8 vertebras. [a. L. vertebra joint, joint of the spine, f. vertĕre to turn. Hence It., Sp., Pg. vertebra, F. vertèbre: cf. VERTEBRE.]
1. Anat. and Zool. One or other of the joints composing the spinal column in man or other vertebrate animals; any segment of the backbone.
α. 1615. Crooke, Body of Man (1631), 930. The vertebra in the middest receiueth that spondell which is aboue it.
1634. A. Read, Descr. Body Man, C vj/1. The transvers processe of the first vertebra.
a. 1728. Woodward, Fossils (1729), I. II. 82. A large Vertebra of a Fish.
1767. Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 367. The Thoracic Duct or canal runs … as far as the fifth vertebra of the back.
1788. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), I. 726. The œsophagus … terminates in the stomach about the eleventh or twelfth vertebra of the back.
1840. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade M. (1842), 7. A Vertebra consists of a body, two laminæ, a spinous process, two transverse processes, and four articular processes.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 35. Each of these small bones is called a vertebra.
Comb. 1839. G. Roberts, Dict. Geol., 180. Vertebralis,… vertebra-like.
β. 1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 42. The Lamprey … hath a Cartilaginous flexible Tube or Channel, without any Vertebræ or Spondyls in it.
1666. J. Davies, Hist. Caribby Isles, 132. Having no vertebræ in the back-bone,… he [sc. the crocodile] goes straight forwards, not being able to turn.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 362. For there be some with fewer Vertebræ in their Necks than others.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1824), II. 140. The vertebræ of the neck [of the ourang-outang] also were shorter.
1851. S. P. Woodward, Mollusca, I. i. 3. A backbone, composed of numerous joints, or vertebræ.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, iii. 73. The angler should … sever the vertebræ at the back of the neck.
transf. 1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 233. The shattered vertebræ of the [Roman] aqueducts.
γ. 1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Isagoge b 8 b. Their vertebra’s are cartilagineous and flexile.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 461. The Vertebra’s descending from the Back.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Cyphoma,… a bending backwards of the Vertebra’s, or Turning-joynts of the Back.
1770. Phil. Trans., LXI. 134. It … extended … to the right ovarium, and vertebras of her back.
b. With particularizing terms.
1726. Monro, Anat. Bones, 178. The Spine is commonly divided into true and false Vertebræ.
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 169. The lumbar vertebræ, as they descend, have their oblique processes at a greater distance from each other.
1847–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., IV. I. 624. The cervical vertebra … differs in this respect from the dorsal vertebra; this from the lumbar vertebra; this from the sacral vertebra; and this from the coccygeal vertebra.
1854. Owen, in Orr’s Circ. Sci., Org. Nat., I. 193. This unusually developed spine of the mesencephalic vertebra. Ibid., 236. In the odd-toed … ungulates, the dorso-lumbar vertebræ differ in different species.
1866. Huxley, Preh. Rem. Caithn., 109. A horse’s skull with its upper cervical vertebræ. Ibid. (1872), Phys., vii. 171. The odontoid peg of the axis vertebra.
2. pl. (with the). The vertebral column; the spine or backbone.
a. 1627. Middleton, Anything for Quiet Life, III. i. I will finde where his Disease of Cozenage lay, whether in the Vertebræ, or in Oscox-Index [= Os Coxendix].
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 2 May 1644. They show also the ribs and vertebræ of the same beast.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., A Weakness of the Ligaments and Muscles fasten’d to the backside of the Vertebræ.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. ix. Dr. Slop’s figure, coming … waddling thro’ the dirt upon the vertebræ of a little diminutive pony.
1834. H. M’Murtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 27. They are articulated at one extremity with the vertebræ.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xv. 160. The vertebræ of a whale similar to that at the igloë of Anoatok.
1872. Huxley, Phys., i. 6. The bones thus cut through are called the bodies of the vertebræ.
fig. 1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 429. I should have known you for a true Search by the pliableness of your neck: the Knowals have a wonderful stiffness in the vertebræ.
b. Without article.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, xx. 478. Large fossil fishes with vertebræ sometimes ossified.
1861. Musgrave, By-roads, 314. He had made the tour of all Europe without once leaning back in his carriage! This indicated matchless rigidity of fibre and strength of vertebræ.
3. In sing. = sense 2. rare–1.
1791. Walker, Pron. Dict., s.v.
1876. J. G. Wood, Nat. Hist., 501. We now enter upon another vast division in which there is no true brain and no vertebra.
4. Zool. (See quots.)
1704. Ray, Disc., II. iv. (1713), 182. Great Stones, and even broken Pieces of Lime-stone Rocks,… almost wholly compos’d of those Vertebræ, or broken Pieces of the Radii of Sea-Stars, which are commonly call’d Fairy-Stones.
1891. Cent. Dict., Vertebra, in echinoderms, any one of the numerous axial ossicles of the arms of starfishes.
