Forms: 2 cell (pl. -as), 3–6 celle, (4–6 sell(e, 7 cel), 5– cell. [ME. celle, a. OF. celle:—L. cella a small apartment, esp. one of several such in the same building, used e.g. for a store-closet, slave’s room, prison cell; also cell of a honeycomb; in late L. also a monk’s or hermit’s cell. The late OE. cell pl. cellas may have been directly ad. L. cella.
The adoption of old and development of new senses in English, have proceeded along many lines, and the logical and chronological orders do not agree. Sense 2 appears to be the earliest, while 7 and 8, already used in Latin, appear comparatively late.
(Some would connect L. cella with cera wax, regarding ‘cell of a honeycomb’ as the original sense.)]
I. A small apartment, room or dwelling.
† 1. A store-closet. (In early quots. after cella of the Vulg.). Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 152. He scheawede þe celles of his aromaz.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xxxix. 2. He shewed to them the selle of spices.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 45. [They] … carieng it into their celles, and garners at home, keep it.
2. A monastery or nunnery, generally of small size, dependent on some larger house. [A frequent med.L. sense of cella (see Du Cange).]
In the first quot. app. = ‘monastery’ in general.
a. 1131. O. E. Chron., an. 1129. Þa priores, muneces and canonias þa wæron on ealle þa cellas on Engla land.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 233. In þe cyty of Bangor a gret hous þer was, Þat were vnder seue cellen [v.r. vii celles].
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 267. A monke of a celle bare him wele þat tide.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 314. We maden oure celles To ben in cyties y-set to styȝtle þe people.
1534. Act 26 Hen. VIII., c. 3 § 8. There be diuers celles apperteining to monasteries and priories.
1651. N. Bacon, Contn. Hist. Disc., xvii. 147. The Norman and French Cells were in his Predecessor’s time seised under this color.
1772. Pennant, Tours Scotl. (1774), 61. The house was once a cell to the Abby.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. App. 680. There was a priory of Lapley (whose church still survives), which was a cell to Saint Remigius.
3. A dwelling consisting of a single chamber inhabited by a hermit or other solitary.
c. 1305. Life St. Dunstan, 60, in E. E. P. (1862), 36. A priuei smyþþe bi his celle he gan him biseo.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. Prol. 28. Ancres and Hermytes þat holdeþ hem in heore Celles. Ibid. (1393), C. XVIII. 7. Suche eremites … in here selles lyueden Wiþ-oute borwynge oþer beggynge bote of god one.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 65. Celle or stodyynge howse [1499 cell or stody hows], cella.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iv. 193. She shall at Frier Lawrence Cell Be shriu’d and married.
a. 1764. R. Lloyd, Ode Oblivion. Thou who delightest still to dwell By some hoar and moss-grown cell.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, vii. 186. Whose homes are more bare and empty than the cell of an anchorite.
† b. fig.
1450–1530. Myrr. Our Ladye, 275. Aue christi cella, Hayle celle of cryste.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 881. In thy shady cell, where none may spy him, Sits sin.
1645. Waller, Div. Love, vi. (R.). The soul contending to that light to fly From her dark cell.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 109. [Reason] retires Into her private Cell when Nature rests.
1757. Gray, Epitaph Mrs. Clarke. A Heart, within whose sacred cell The peaceful Virtues lov’d to dwell.
c. poet. A small and humble dwelling, a cottage. Also, a lonely nook; the den of a wild beast.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 11. What meaneth this Cell … at the entrance? This is syr, my Bayliffes lodging, I lay him by the Gate, that he may see who goeth in and out.
1624. Quarles, Sion’s Sonn. See how kings’ courts surmount poore shepheards’ cels.
1647. Herrick, Thanksgiving to God. Lord, thou hast given me a cell Wherein to dwell.
1735. Somerville, Chase, III. 222. All the Race Carnivorous … retire Into their darksome Cells.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. xxxvii. Like hunted stag, in mountain cell.
d. Applied in poetry to the grave (often with some notion of sense 4).
1750. Gray, Elegy, iv. Each in his narrow cell for ever laid The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
1843. Neale, Hymns for Sick, 49. Nor dreaming of the narrow cell.
1877. Bryant, Among Trees, 49. Their last rest, Their little cells within the burial-place.
4. One of a number of small apartments in a building, serving as the dwelling of a single person:
a. in a monastery, nunnery, or the like. Formerly, also in an almshouse.
1340. Ayenb., 267. Þer byeþ Monckes uor claustres and uor strayte cellen.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 60. Þei … [lurken] in her selles, [And] wynnen werldliche god.
1462. Hull Trinity House Rec., Paide for xliii sawne board boght for th’ makyng of the Celles of th’ said Trenyte House … iiijs. ijd.
1483. Cath. Angl., 56. A Celle, cella, cellula, conclaue.
1522. Hull Trinity House Rec., Ye praisels In Agnes Brekhan’s Sel prassyd by John Wyssby, etc. … iiijs.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 179 b. Some aduysed her to brenne incence in her cell.
1644. Hull Corporation Bks., 13 April. All such goodes and household stuffe as they should … use in their seuerall cells or rooms.
1663. Cowley, Verses & Ess. (1669), 70. The Chartreux wants the warning of a Bell To call him to the duties of his Cell.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, xiii. 220. In passing along the gallery, I saw, through some doors which were ajar, the cells of the sisterhood.
b. in a prison; formerly, also in a madhouse. Condemned cell: a cell occupied by one who is condemned to death.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 166. The cells in Newgate.
1777. J. Howard, State of Pris. (1792), 213. The rooms and cells [of Old Newgate] were so close, as to be almost constant seats of disease.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, xxiii. Here separate cells awhile in misery keep Two doom’d to suffer.
1828. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 234. Tasso pines in the cell of a madhouse.
1884. Griffiths, Chron. Newgate, 360. Hence there was a terrible accumulation of prisoners in the condemned cells.
† 5. A small private room. Obs. rare.
1340–70. Alisaunder, 525. Nectanabus … passed in his Paleis too a priuie sell.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, in Babees Bk. (1868), 128. Serue hit [ypocras] forth with wafurs bothe in chambur & celle.
6. Archit. = CELLA (see also 9 a).
1842–75. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss. Cell, in ancient architecture the part of a temple within the walls.
II. One of the compartments into which anything is divided.
7. generally. e.g., a compartment of a dove-cot or the like (so in Lat.), of a drawer or cabinet, a pigeon-hole. arch.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 169. For the tame Pigions … they make … certaine hollowe roomes, and celles for them.
1727. Pope, Art Sinking, 115. Cells resembling those of cabinets for rarities.
8. One of the compartments in the comb of wax made by bees. [So L. cella.]
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 175 b. Their Coames that they make are wrought full of holes, which holes … are their Celles … these Celles they doe all fill with Honie.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon. (1634), 57. Ðis Com conteineth about six Cels of ðe bignes and fashion of ðe Bees Cels.
1720. Watts, Hymn, How doth the little busy bee. How skilfully she builds her cell, How neat she spreads the wax.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VIII. 70. The cells of the bees are perfect hexagons.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), I. 368.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 106. A bee-keeper would cut out the cells of drones.
9. One of a number of spaces into which a surface is divided by linear partitions: spec.
a. in Archit. (see quot.)
1850. Parker, Gloss. Archit. (ed. 5), I. 116. The term vaulting cell is applied by Mr. Whewell to the hollow space between the principal ribs of a vaulted roof.
b. Entom. ‘The space between the nerves of the wings of insects.’
1881. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
10. Electr. Originally, one of the compartments of the wooden trough of Cruickshank’s voltaic battery; afterwards applied to the vessel (in Daniell’s or similar batteries) containing one pair of plates of divers metals immersed in fluid. Now, usually, a simple voltaic apparatus, containing only one pair of metallic elements; when several cells are united they constitute a battery.
1828. Oxf. Cycl., III. 521. The plates [in Children’s battery] are … immersed in the cells of a trough.
1841. Lardner & Walker, Man. Electr., II. 329. A single cell of this battery is represented in fig. 142. It consists essentially of a copper-cell A, [etc.].
1882. Watts, Dict. Chem., II. 425. In Daniell’s battery, each cell consists of a copper cylinder. Ibid., 428. The two liquids in each cell being separated by a porous diaphragm.
III. An enclosed space, cavity, or sac, in organized bodies, or (transf.) in mineral products.
11. generally. a. Applied to various larger cavities having functions, as the ventricles of the heart, the loculi of the ovary in plants, etc. (In modern scientific language seldom used.)
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xcix. (1495), 665. The greynes of pomegarnades ben ordenyd in theyr owne selles.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. xxiii. 174. After them certayne hollow little huskes or Celles.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 110. They [bitches] bring forth many at a time—sometime five, seven, nine, or twelve; for so many cels hath the female in her womb.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 85/1. The Cell is the hollow places in puds, husks, or coars … in the Fruit.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v. Coniferous, In which Cone are many Seeds, and when they are ripe the several Cells or Partitions in the Cone gape or open, and the Seed drops out.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., The name is also given, by botanists, to the partitions in the husks or pods, where the seeds of plants lie.
1776. Withering, Bot. Arrangem. (1796), I. 320. Capsule roundish, with as many cells as there are styles.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., i. (1858), 16. The interior of the ovary is called the cell.
b. Applied to minute cavities or interstices in the structure of any tissue, mineral substance, etc.
1819. Pantologia, s.v., Cellular membrane … by means of the communication of the cells of this membrane … the butchers blow up their veal.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xxi. (1852), 493. The central part is coarsely cellular, the cells decreasing in size towards the exterior;… the outside crust of finely cellular lava.
1856. Woodward, Fossil Shells, 39. Horizontal sections exhibit a cellular net-work, with here and there a dark cell, which is empty.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. I. 41. Cellular or areolar tissue is composed of numerous Camellæ, which by their interlacement intercept a number of open spaces termed cells.
c. Cells of the brain: the imaginary cavities or compartments in that organ, formerly supposed to be the seats of particular mental faculties, or to serve as ‘pigeon-holes’ for the reception of knowledge. (More scientifically, the ventricles of the brain were called cells.) Obs. exc. fig.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 176. Of a man The wit … Is in the celles of the brain.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. ii. So feble was his celle retentife.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. Howe many celles hath the brayne after his length.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. iii. § 5. History … answereth to one of the cells, domiciles, or offices of the mind of man; which is that of the memory.
1718. Prior, Alma, III. 168 in Poems (1725), II. 115 (J.).
| The Brain contains ten thousand Cells: | |
| In each some active Fancy dwells. |
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 11. It [the sound] opens all the cells Where Mem’ry slept.
1834. H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., vii. (1857), 88. The corresponding cells of understanding and memory.
12. In modern Biology: The ultimate element in organic structures; a minute portion of protoplasm, enclosed usually in a membranous investment. Often with a defining word prefixed, as blood-cell.
The history of this sense appears to begin with Grew, who observed and described the cells of plants. (See the 17–18th c. quots. that follow.) But the determination of the relation of these cells to the living organism belongs to the present [19th] century.
1672–3. Grew, Anat. Plants (1682), 64. The Microscope … shews that these Pores are all, in a manner, Spherical, in most Plants; and this Part an infinite Mass of little Cells or Bladders.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Cells, in anatomy, are little bags, or bladders, where fluids, or other matters, are lodged; called also loculi, cellulæ, &c.
1770. Sir J. Hill, Constr. Timber, 68. We see that cell in its true nature: it is an oval Bladder or Bleb.
1845. Day, trans. Simon’s Anim. Chem., I. 212. The general action of the hepatic cells.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 7. We shall hereafter see that a cell, or closed vesicle, formed of a membranous wall, and containing fluid, may be regarded as the simplest form of a living body.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., I. ii. § 4. The countless millions of nerve cells.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. I. 40. They are accordingly true vesicles, and on that account,… the name of ‘blood cells’ is to be preferred.
1866. A. Flint, Princ. Med. (1880), 39. The modern conception of a cell is based, not upon its etymological significance, but upon the presence in it of living matter or protoplasm. Even formless clumps of protoplasm are some times called cells.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6), II. xii. 264. The yeast-plant … is an assemblage of living cells.
1880. Gray, Struct. Bot., § 45. These component parts … take one common name, that of Cells.
13. The cup-like cavity occupied by an individual polype in a compound polypidom, in the Zoophytes and Polyzoa. Also, a simple shell of one of the Foraminifera.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 1053. This horny tube is enlarged at certain points into sheaths or cells for the protection of the Polypes; within these the individuals can retract themselves. Ibid., 1054. The cells are arranged upon the sides of these [branched stems] like the minute leaflets of mosses.
1855. Kingsley, Glaucus (1878), 73–4. Each polype cell is edged with whip-like spines.
1855. Gosse, Man. Marine Zool., I. 11. Lagena: Cell calcareous, single, globular, with a long external tubular neck. Ibid., 21. Sertularia: Corallum plant-like … cells vase-like … alternate, or in pairs.
IV. Applied to various hollow receptacles or containing cavities.
14. a. generally.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. liv. 287. Wells of Fire, that continually burn in their own Cells.
† b. The brass socket in which the lenses of a microscope, etc., are mounted. Obs.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v. Microscope, Object-Glasses … fix’d in Brass Cells ready to screw on.
1784. Herschel, in Phil. Trans., LXXV. 44. Unscrewing the object-glass or speculum a little in its cell.
c. Microscopy. A cavity hollowed out of, or built up upon, a glass slide, for the purpose of receiving an object for microscopical observation.
1881. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
1881. Carpenter, Microscope, v. (ed. 6), 216. Where large shallow cells with flat bottoms are required (as for mounting Zoophytes, small Medusæ, etc.).
V. 15. attrib. and Comb. a. (in seuses 3, 4) as cell-gallery, -grating; cell-bred adj.; b. (in sense 12), as cell-action, -aggregate, -body, -cavity, -cleavage, -division, -evolution, -fibre, -form, -formation, -fusion, -genesis, -germ, -growth, -life, -mass, -membrane, -multiplication, -nucleus, -pigment, -plate, -proliferation, -sap, -stage, -substance, -wall.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 101/2. *Cell-action then must have some influence as the cause of the chemical changes.
1878. Bell, trans. Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 16. A subordinate part of the *cell-body.
1728. Pope, Dunciad, II. 356. A low-born, *cell-bred, selfish, servile band.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 442/1. Between the cell-wall and the *cell-cavity.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 762. The fresh formation of parts connected with *cell-division is in general independent of light. Ibid., 16. This mode of *cell-formation consists almost invariably in the bipartition of a mother-cell.
1872. Aitken, Sc. & Pract. Med. (ed. 6), II. 1054. Other *cell-forms occur in the urine.
1791. Bentham, Panopt., I. 17. Postsc., The *Cell-Galleries are … perfectly commanded by every station in the Inspection-part. Ibid., 55. Postsc. The other [party] immediately within the *Cell-grating.
1859. Todd, Cycl. Anat., V. 9/1. Minute cells are formed … which may be called reproductive *cell-germs.
1870. Bentley, Bot., 19. The *cell-membrane of young cells is very thin.
1835. Lindley, Introd. Bot. (1848), I. 34. *Cell-nuclei (Cytoblasts) occur in all classes and orders of plants.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 117/1. The only true black *cell-pigment.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 18. A row of granules now makes its appearance … this is the *cell-plate.
1877. Roberts, Handbk. Med. (ed. 3), I. 45. The first tendency is to the active production of cells,—*cell-proliferation or germination as it is termed.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 102/1. The *cell-wall must be the seat of endosmosis and exosmosis.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 3. Older wood and cork thus consist of a mere framework of cell-walls.
